Out and about with the ranger on the Veluwe

Together with Honeyguide Angelique, I set off with foresters Sebas and Rein. They are already waiting for us. We barely have time to get acquainted, because on the sloping, gold-lit hill opposite the car park in this hidden forest on the North Veluwe, three red deer are posing in such a glorious manner that it gives me goosebumps.

We are lucky to see them, says Sebas. The time of the red deer has actually passed a bit, because after dark a huge pack always moves through this forest towards farmland and back. But then the forest is not accessible to us humans - only from sunrise to sunset. Yet after that, you also regularly encounter deer and roe deer.

A little later, Rein shows the tracks and points into the distance. "The pack moved from the field over there across the dirt track into the forest." I save the tracks in my memory: how cool I think it will be to recognise red deer tracks from now on. We also see other tracks. Those of rooting wild boar, always looking for food. But we don't see them.

With his thermal imaging camera, Sebas scours the forests for animals. "Do you smell that spicy smell? The wild boars are around here," he says with his hunter's instinct. Moments later, we see them having breakfast - there are up to 30 of them. A little further on, they run past at full speed. It does not at all match my image that they are sluggish pigs. And I can imagine them getting dangerous. "But that's only if you get close to the piglets," Sebas reassures us.

The awakening forest itself is beautiful in the morning. Sometimes a mysterious blue glow shines through the trees where a unicorn would not be out of place. Another time, we walk on open moorland. I learn about the tree species and shrubs, such as the many blueberry bushes that will soon, when they flower, form a huge feast for the animals.

The two foresters are good company. They not only explain all kinds of things about the forest, the animals and everything related to it. They also tell about themselves. Rein, the elder, has been a forester for decades. "A lot has changed in that time," he says. "You used to be paid to cut down, now you are paid to precisely not cut down," he says. Ask him about the behaviour of a particular bird and he'll talk you all the way through. He even spent a few years as a shepherd, which he loved.

Sebas is a hobby forester in addition to his office job in IT. A fine combination, he thinks. He is a true nature explorer who enjoys teaching people something.

They also hunt, says Sebas. Not for fun, but for the balance of nature. It is carefully determined which animals can be shot and which cannot, and of what age. I myself have always been against hunting, but now that I hear Sebas' story, I have more understanding. Nobody wants a barren landscape with animals dying of starvation, like the tragedy at the time in the Oostvaardersplassen.

Balance in nature is more important than ever. There are even a dozen wolves roaming the Veluwe again. It will be exciting what that will soon do to the balance of the area.