Large - scale nature development – the Oostvaardersplassen

Once, Europe was one large natural area, across which species of animals and plants were able freely to move and disperse. Today, a satellite image of Europe looks like a Persian carpet cut into millions of small rectangular pieces, each fashioned by the plough and the spade over thousands of years of cultivation. The consequence of this change is that species have disappeared. For example, animals such as the Aurochs Bos primigenius and the Tarpan Equus przewalski gmelini (wild progenitors of our domestic breeds of cattle and horse) have become extinct. Species that have survived have disappeared from large parts of their natural range. Examples include Red Deer Cervus elaphus, Elk Alces alces, Wolf Canis lupus, Lynx Lynx lynx, Common Crane Grus grus, White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla, Pedunculate and Sessile Oak Quercus robur and Q. petraea, Large-leaved and Small-leaved Lime Tilia platyphyllos and T. cordata, Wild Pear Pyrus pyraster and Wild Service-tree Sorbus torminalis.