SRF 1: The re­turn of the wild

Bears, wolves, bearded vultures and perhaps soon even the largest mammal in Europe, the bison, are returning. Reno Sommerhalder, the Swiss-Canadian bear man, is looking for intact nature, traveling in Switzerland and elsewhere in the world to where the wild is stirring again. And the journey also takes him to the German shore of Lake Constance, where Waldrappen from zoos are being taught to fly again 400 years after their extinction.

In this film by Beat Bieri, Reno Sommerhalder travels to Bialowieza in eastern Poland, where the first zoo bison were released into the wild in 1952, and where 1,000 of the mighty animals now live again, mostly well hidden, in Europe's largest primeval forest. They have now become a driving force for local nature tourism.

In 2016, the bear returned to the heart of Switzerland, to the canton of Uri, for the first time - almost 200 years after it had been eradicated there. It was a turbulent year for gamekeeper Fredy Arnold: How will the large predator behave? There was considerable skepticism among the population until it became clear that the young male bear was very shy, almost invisible, and did not want any contact with humans.

The forest in Switzerland grows by an area equivalent to 8,500 football pitches every year. The Ticino forestry engineer Roberto Buffi fought for a wild forest decades ago, co-founded several forest reserves in Ticino where the woodland is left to itself, where a slowly growing primeval forest develops a new, haunting magic. Today's people, especially those in urban areas, often see the wilderness as a place of longing - and yet wild nature also arouses unease, even fear, in people. "It's the fear of the irrational, the uncontrollable," says Buffi.

There are many alarming findings from nature. This film shows people who are doing something to counteract this.