In Britain, rewilding has been popularised by the environmentalist George Monbiot, whose 2013 book, Feral, is an eloquent call to rewild all aspects of life, including ourselves. But, as rewilding gains popularity, so it attracts criticism – and confusion. To which wild period should we return? As wild as 1800, 1066 or 10,000 years ago? Some advocates, such as Knepp’s owners, Sir Charles Burrell and Isabella Tree, prefer “wilding”, for we can never turn the countryside’s clock back to a precise moment. And how ancient or large should the megafauna be? Wild boar? Bears? Or even woolly mammoths? Is the influential predator known as Homo sapiens to be excluded from rewilded countryside?