Paper short abstract:

Wild horses are one of many designations of local identity that has been recognized as European heritage stamp, as a number of projects for their preservation and „rewilding“ suggests. What are cultural processes behind aspirations to preserve ecosystems, even at the cost of „constructing“ the wild?

Paper long abstract:

It is almost impossible to define what a man is or what it means to be human without defining what other animals are and what they mean to us. How are other animals involved in the creation of a specific national, regional or local identity?

Wild horses are similar designation of local identity that has recently been recognized as a common, European heritage stamp, as a number of projects for their preservation or reintroduction of 'wilderness' suggests (eg. 'Rewilding Horses in Europe').

Debate over wild horses (concept that is nothing more than a heterotopia), raises many questions. Why are they so important today, on the verge of their (genetical) extinction and to whom? They are presented in a variety of identities: from pests that destroy local peoples crops or pieces of meat on dinning tables to the four-legged embodiment of a romantic ideal of wilderness and nature that must be preserved, small population of wild horses illustrate how dynamic and flexible tradition and it's elemets are.

Is there a greater utopia of Velebit upon which wild horses run free? Is there a greater utopia than that of Europe that seeks to 'rewild' itself?

What are the cultural processes behind these aspirations to preserve the ailing ecosystems, all at the cost of constructing the wild and why is it so important to preserve what we have so systematically cultivated and destroyed through thousands of years?