Wolves in Britain - should we welcome them back?

A children's book called The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig sits next to a cuddly wolf toy in the shop at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust headquarters in Berkshire. It's an attempt to dispel the myths about the European wolf, once indigenous to the UK and still found in large numbers on the Continent. We tell our children about Little Red Riding Hood but forget Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of Rome, who were reared by wolves.

In large parts of central and eastern Europe, walkers roam and shepherds tend sheep, co-existing with wolves - in fact, more sheep are killed by dogs than by wolves. There are between 18,000 and 25,000 in Europe (their elusive nature makes counting difficult), the largest populations being in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Ukraine and Albania.

Farmers and ramblers in Britain are opposed to the return of the wolf - even though it lived here until the middle of the 18th century. They see
it as a threat to livestock and free access to the countryside. Tsa Palmer, director of the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, which works to keep wolves in the wild, agrees that until people stop being afraid of the wolf, conserving it will not be a priority. "Wolves can be tamed or socialised but never trained," Tsa explains. "The Trust is not advocating re-introduction to Britain. Our concern is for their welfare throughout Europe where, in places such as Russia and Bulgaria, they are still hunted and trapped, while elsewhere shepherds accept the wolf as part of rural life. They are taught ways to deter them from livestock and are compensated for losses."

The Ramblers Association in Scotland is opposed to a re-introduction that would restrict the right to roam. "We worked hard for land reform legislation, and we are proud that we now have one of the best arrangements in Europe for public access to land and water," says access campaign officer Helen Todd.  

"In the end, it's a government decision. If all sections of the public do not support the idea, then there is hardly likely to be much political support for it, no matter how scientifically robust the argument may be."

Living cheek by jowl with wolves was commonplace in Britain until mass persecution began in the reign of Edward I (1272-1307); one source refers to a 10th-century king, Edgar, receiving annual tributes in the form of 300 wolf skins. As woodland was cleared for agricultural use, their habitat diminished and they were branded worthless predators. The last wolf in the British Isles was probably killed in County Wicklow, Ireland, in around 1760.

So could we ever see wolves here again? Paul Lister, son of the millionaire MFI magnate, thinks it's possible. He bought 23,000 acres of a former shooting estate at Alladale, north of Inverness, in 2003 and hopes to double his land by buying neighbouring estates and offer wildlife safaris. Boar are already at large, lynx are next on the list, and wolves are due to follow, all within a 9ft-high electrified fence. "Mine
 is the only way to see wolves in Britain again," he says "Any other form of re-introduction will not work. Our rural communities won't tolerate it."  

UK Wolf Conservation Trust, Reading, Berkshire (0118 971 3330; www.ukwolf.org). Alladale Wilderness Lodge and Reserve, Ardgay, Sutherland (01863 755338; www.alladale.com).

FOR:  "Without the wolf, we lack the top tier of predators, which affects the whole of our wildlife population" - lan Watson Featherstone, executive director and founder, Trees For Life

"A dog is man's best friend, we say - yet a dog is simply a domestic wolf. We have demonised wolves to the extent that fear is the greatest obstacle to re-introducing them to the British Isles.

"Here in the Highlands of Scotland, the benefits to the eco-system of a strong wolf population would be vast, particularly in controlling deer. More important than their success rate as predator is that they disperse the herds, so that the habitat has a chance to recover from the damage they cause to trees and other plantlife.

"Wolves take out the weakest, the sick and the old, which is better for the herd as a whole, acting as a natural, inexpensive culling process. Current numbers of deer are unsustainable - there are 250,000 red deer in Scotland, of which only 70,000 are culled each year. In some areas there can be as many as 30 red deer per 100 hectares; the ideal number is five or fewer.

"Without the wolf we lack the top tier of predators, which affects the whole of our wildlife population.

In another 15 years, the public perception could have changed, depending on whether beaver re-introduction is successful, followed by, possibly, the lynx, which doesn't carry the cultural baggage of the wolf.
"I am sympathetic to fears about livestock, but Scottish farmers aren't any different to Italian or Spanish, who co-exist with wolves. Sheep could still be reared in the lowlands, giving the Highlands a chance to recover from overgrazing, with wolves roaming free and playing their part in the natural world."

AGAINST: "Farmers are already struggling, and re-introducing wolves would be gambling with their future"   - Anna Davies, National Farmers' Union, Scotland

"For our members the main anxiety about the re-introduction of wolves would be the threat to livestock. Concerns about over-grazing might have been valid five years ago, but many sheep farmers have given up because it is no longer profitable, and numbers have dropped, leading to a downturn in the rural economy.

"Farmers are already struggling, and re-introducing wolves would be gambling with their future. The comparison with Eastern Europe does not work. Many of those countries have never lost the wolf, so it makes sense to conserve a declining species. But it's 250 years since they existed in this country, and the eco-system is completely different today. The land was mainly forest then, rather than open wilderness, there were fewer people, more deer and no sheep in the Highlands [until the Clearances, which began in 1762 after the last wolf had been killed]. Our priority should be to conserve breeds we already have.

"Our methods of farming could not accommodate wolves preying on animals. Our view is that limited resources should not be diverted to a project that is unlikely to come to fruition in the foreseeable future."

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