WildKingdom and the Map of Dreams Podcast
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Episode 5: Joost Lammer & Johan van der Haven
Release date:
Apr 1, 2026
Joost & Johan, Dutch rewilding pioneers, reveal to Hugh Somerleyton their radical plan to bring back the lost Dalmatian pelican to the Netherlands and even potentially Great Britain, a spectacular “aqua wolf” that could transform our wetlands forever.
In this episode, Hugh is joined remotely by two of the people at the heart of one of the most ambitious rewilding stories in Europe, the effort to return the Dalmatian pelican to the Netherlands after an absence of more than 500 years.
Joost Lammer is Curator at Vogelpark Avifauna, the world's very first bird park and a serious force in international species conservation. Johan van der Haven is Avifauna's Team Leader for Green and Nature, a lifelong birder with a decade spent living in Thailand and a daily commitment to strengthening biodiversity across the globe.
This is a conversation about patience, partnership, and the profound possibility of restoration which is something the UK is looking to recreate.
