The dramatic landscape of Western Iberia in Portugal where the Côa river is carving its deep path through the mountains is home to a vast variety of wildlife. Animal species of all sizes, shapes and colors inhabit land, skies and waters of the Côa Valley, however a great number of them are hard to spot. Anyone can see large herbivores from afar, but many other species are only visible through lenses of wildlife cameras – the invisible eyes in the wild.

In April 2015, Rewilding Europe offered two internship positions for a desk study to collect information about wildlife in rewilding areas, in particular on the larger mammals and birds. Out of many applications received, one student and a volunteer were selected: Anna Luijten and Jelle Harms from The Netherlands. The goal of the study was to obtain an overview of the key species, their numbers, distribution, trends, habitat preferences and populations estimates. In this blog you can read how it is being an intern at Rewilding Europe.

Linden Tree Retreat & Ranch is the only genuine working guest ranch in Croatia, surrounded by 200,000 hectares of the UNESCO Velebit Nature Park. The ranch, located within the Velebit rewilding area, offers a range of equestrian adventures through the picturesque mountains, valleys and coastal landscapes of Velebit. In 2013, Rewilding Europe supported the expansion of Linden Tree through Rewilding Europe Capital. Now, two years later, Linden Tree received an Excellence Award by TripAdvisor and recognition from the world travel market. Find out more in this blog by Megi Yerkovich, one of the Linden Tree owners.

Dave and Anna, two environmentalists from the United Kingdom, started their “Biking for Rewilding” tour in April 2015 after leaving their office jobs and taking off on an adventure with a purpose. The 4,000 km cycling tour led them through seven European countries, where they visited seven rewilding areas. The final two destinations were Wisent Welt and the Palatinate Forest Biosphere Reserve in Germany, members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).

After a long day of travel, five Rewilding Europe team members from Velebit (Croatia) and Eastern Carpathians (Poland) arrived at the Kuikka base camp of Wildlife Safaris Finland. Here, we would spend the next two days with experienced wildlife photographer Lassi Rautiainen, learning about his highly successful wildlife photographic and tourism business, with the aim of attaining a better understanding of the operating standards and finer details behind Finnish wildlife watching.

Dave and Anna, two environmentalists from the United Kingdom, started their “biking for rewilding” tour in April 2015 after leaving their office jobs and taking off on an adventure with a purpose. In this fourth blog you can read about their visit to the European bison project in the Kraansvlak area along the Dutch coast. This project is one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN). It was here, where Dave and Anna met the spectacular European bison in nature for the first time in their life.

This summer, the rewilding team has been busy designing a Tented Camp experience in the Southern Carpathians rewilding landscape. The infrastructure for the Tented Camp is made up of highly durable tents and other amenities designed to provide comfort for tourists who want to spend a couple of nights in a remote and wild natural area, explore the surroundings with specialized wildlife guides but also offer an exclusive experience to those who are not the usual campers.

On our cycle tour of rewilding areas in Europe, our third stop was Parc Naziunal Svizzer – the Swiss National Park. Established in 1914, it was the first national park in the Alps and by now one of the oldest national parks in Europe. It is one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).

Born and raised in a small village among the mountain ranges of central Portugal, Pedro’s interest in the natural world began at an early age. Over time, what started as a child’s natural curiosity turned into a serious academic pursuit as Pedro, after experimenting with different pathways in his early student days, eventually graduated from the University of Lisbon with a Master of Science in Biology.

On our cycle tour of rewilding areas in Europe, our second stop was Muntanya d’Alinyà, a living mountain in the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees. Muntanya d’Alinyà is one of the largest private nature reserves in Spain and member of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).