Book Review: How Wildlife Is Returning to the East

The article reviews the book Beasts of the East by journalist and author John Platt, which explores the resurgence of wildlife in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet states.

This region, often overlooked in global conservation discussions, has seen a remarkable return of species such as wolves, bears, lynx, and bison over the past few decades.

The book highlights how these animals, once nearly extinct in many areas due to hunting, habitat loss, and political upheavals like the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, are now reclaiming their former territories.

Platt argues that this revival is not accidental but the result of deliberate conservation efforts, changing human attitudes, and the rewilding of abandoned farmlands and industrial sites.

The phenomenon is particularly notable in countries like Poland, Romania, and the Balkans, where large predators and herbivores are now thriving in ecosystems that were once considered too fragmented or degraded to support them.