“Nothing like this has been seen since the 1600s”

The 2,000-acre (800-hectare) rewilding initiative is recreating an ecosystem that existed in this coastal area long before it was cultivated as farmland. Anyone can visit it: the site is open to the public and the volunteers at the nature center are ready to answer questions about the difference it is making. 

Already the project has successfully introduced hardy primitive breeds including those curious Exmoor ponies and a herd of friendly, curly-haired Galloway cattle, in a bid to restore biodiversity and help us understand what nature has lost through generations of agricultural practice. And something very big is brewing.

As we swing round the corner, sending a scarlet-faced cock pheasant strutting off into the long grass, a series of fences and enclosures are visible in the distance. It’s the biggest project of the the year: the introduction of the Tauros.

Created through selective breeding and in part inspired by stone-age cave paintings of the long extinct auroch, the Tauros is a mega cow. The bulls – whose testosterone can be smelled some way off – weigh in at 1500kg (3300lb). Unlike modern-day cows, these beasts have not been bred selectively for meat production. They are as tall as horses, slimmer than you’d expect, and with long, wide horns that may remind you of the wild west. The last time a cattle species anything like it was seen in Europe was in the early 1600s, when Denmark was busy fighting the Thirty Years’ War.

On August 6, 2025, thirty Tauros cattle arrived at Saksfjed on a truck from the Netherlands, and stepped cautiously out into their new home. It was a genuinely historic moment for nature management in Denmark, and Thor Hjarsen, a project manager and senior biologist at the Hempel Foundation, which runs Saksfjed Wilderness, watched it happen. He said later: “I must admit, when they finally arrived at Rødby Harbor and stepped onto Danish soil, I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.” After spending one month in the specially built 20-hectare enclosure, the Tauros were released, and they now roam freely across the whole site. 

Before we get carried away with ideas about bringing ancient cave paintings back to life, and the Jurassic Park scenarios this brings to your mind (“I had a nightmare about a Tauros in a supermarket,” Hjarsen admits), let’s get back to why this matters. 

Large grazers can have a defining effect on an ecosystem, creating the conditions for others to thrive. This role was once played in Europe, Asia and North Africa by aurochs, the ancestors of modern cattle. Unfortunately aurochs were hunted to extinction. So rewilding organizations have come together to find the species’ nearest living relatives, breed a variety of cattle that comes as close as possible to its characteristics: the Tauros. Denmark has now joined Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Czechia and Croatia in introducing herds of Tauros, and Hjarsen hopes the Danish project will “pave the way for others”.

If the idea of encountering large herbivores in the wild has your heart pounding with a frisson of fear, you’re in the right place: this is a project aimed at putting animals, not humans, at the centre of nature. In other words, it’s not about you: it’s about them; that feeling of not being in control, of maybe being a little vulnerable, is part of it. 

Rewilding is a concept that varies a little from country to country, but it centers on an idea that nature should develop in its own way. It should follow its own wild processes; be defined by large herbivores, not humans; allow storms and lightning to take out trees; and unfold without intervention.

Given the way we humans have treated nature, it’s about time, says Hjarsen. “We have won the battle against nature by miles. But we keep on fighting it, kicking it while it’s down. It’s time to give it a chance,” he said.

The Hempel Foundation bought this area of low-quality farmland in 2023 with a long-term plan to re-establish nature’s rhythms, and observe them as they develop. Even in such a short time, the results have been impressive. Last winter, a flooded field lured back the endangered European green toad. And that’s not all, as Jens Thorving Andersen, a spiky-haired naturalist who works alongside Hjarsen, tells me.

“I was walking through the sandy fields recently and almost trod on another newcomer – the critically endangered blue-winged grasshopper. A heavy built creature with desert camouflage,” he said. “It’s only been found in one other location in Denmark before and the population has been in decline. In less than a year and a half, in land managed in the right way, with no agriculture, run by larger animals, they have been able to colonize new areas here. It tells us a lot about the state of nature – and that rewilding works.”

Alongside the cattle and horses, the land is home to an extraordinary array of species, including the red-backed shrike and white-tailed eagles, plus wasp spiders, grass snakes, lizards, beetles and more. We stop, more than once on our walk around the area, to look at shiny-backed beetles and a pretty blue butterfly that has come into land on a flower. But we shouldn’t get hung up on species, as Hjarsen explains, because that’s not how it works. It’s all about a greater system here, where everything works together. 

“Wild nature is about wild processes. Species are the actors on the stage. We can relate to them, but we have to understand that there is no show without processes.”

In a perfect system, it should work like this: the large animals eat the larger plants, clearing them so that there is space for the smaller plants to grow through. This then encourages greater biodiversity in the plant universe: without the larger herbivores, the growth of larger plants crowds out any chance these little plants have for survival. It’s a cascade of positive impact: giving them a chance means there is more food for the smaller animals, promoting their population growth in a system that works all the way down the chain.

Larger animals also shape the land physically. They kick up dust bowls, knock down trees, barge through bushes and make new paths. Thorving Andersen puts it most succinctly: “Big animals effectively level the field for the ‘loser’ species,” he said. “It’s about co-existence, little and large together. We have forgotten that – but nature hasn’t.”

“We looked at previous ecosystems, which had large mammals, like woolly rhinos, elephants, and also more recent ones, with aurochs, giant deer… and realized we had a whole missing layer of megafauna – large animals,” explained Hjarsen. “The thought was to introduce megafauna to see if that was the solution.” 

Enter the Tauros. 

“Functionally, they will be similar to the ancient aurochs that used to roam these lands,” said  Hjarsen. “They will be much more active than meat cattle  – they move a lot. They break branches and dig in the soil.”

In comparison to the small divots in the ground created by common Galloway bulls when they paw the ground – not much more than ten centimetres deep – the hole created by a frustrated Tauros is more like a grenade crater. Their presence will reshape the landscape in a dramatic way: large holes like this fill up after rain and create water holes for smaller animals, as well as a habitat for a frog or newt, and provide a breeding ground for ground dwelling insects when dried out. It’s not just rewilding the landscape, it’s remaking it.

It is of course carefully managed, requiring detailed permissions from the Danish environmental protection agency and the local authority, among others, as well as extensive electric fencing and monitoring along the perimeter of the project. The neighboring beetroot and wheat farmers certainly don’t want a herd of neo-aurochs trampling their produce, and farmers wouldn’t be in a hurry to restrain these wide-horned beasts. But that sense of awe is part of the programme too.

“The aurochs are a powerful symbol of the ancient landscape,” said Hjarsen. “In a way it’s all about making humans small again.”

This is rewilding at its heart: making the human impact on the environment far smaller, and allowing ancient megafauna back in to manage it instead. It puts them back at the heart of nature, rather than us.

The plan for Saksfjed Wilderness is to monitor the behavior and diversity of this project for the long term, and to use it to provide learnings and inspiration for other rewilding initiatives across Europe. 

“As climate change continues, nature will change,” said Hjarsen. “By setting aside large areas and letting natural dynamics rule, we can focus on the process and see what happens. Things will change, but scientists tell us that this is one of the best ways to protect biodiversity in a warmer future.”

“It was my idea to call it the Wilderness. It’s not the official definition of one, but one day, I hope you will be able to get lost here. You will see the wild and feel small.” 

As I leave down a quiet track, I spot the black ears of a hare in a field of long grass, and the amber-orange back of another cock pheasant jogging back into the hedgerow. If my day in the wilderness has taught me anything, it’s that the small things are just as important as the big, and that everything is better when we coexist.