‘We make nature here’: pioneering Dutch project repairs image after outcry over starving animals

Konik horses, which roam freely around Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve. Males are not castrated so as to encourage natural behaviour in the 250-strong herd. Other herbivores in what is sometimes called the Dutch Serengeti include a hardy breed of cattle and red deer. Photograph: Judith Jockel/The Guardian

We are in a 4x4 driving through long grass on a bit of land that was once at the bottom of the North Sea. Drained in 1968, this landscape forms part of the world’s largest artificial island, home to Oostvaardersplassen, one of Europe’s most controversial and influential rewilding projects.

Herds of free-ranging horses, white-tailed eagles, cattle egrets, high-speed trains, planes, powerlines, wind turbines and the city skyline of Almere all fit in a single frame. It is 7,500 hectares (18,500 acres), roughly the size of Manhattan, and 30 minutes’ drive from Amsterdam. Everything you can see is less than 50 years old.