Konik Horses, Oostvaardersplassen, Netherlands

A mouse-gray Konik herd resting in the wet grassland of the Oostvaardersplassen while birds pass overhead, less than an hour's drive from Amsterdam on land that was seabed until the 1960s. Koniks are a hardy Polish breed, and the Dutch brought them here in the early 1980s as living lawnmowers for a bold rewilding experiment: let big grazers shape the reserve with as little human help as possible. The herd grew into the hundreds, and hard winters turned the reserve into a national argument about how wild a managed landscape should be.