What does everyone think of the idea of reintroducing wolves back into the UK environment?

Personally I love the idea. I think it would be a great benefit to the UK environment. The main problem I see with the ideas is the publics perception of wolves which is negative to say the least. The stories of attacks are generally exagerated to the extreme as wolves would not tend to attack a human unless provoked.

Yes, I think that the wolves should be re-introduced. There will be vast numbers of people out to get 'rid' of them, though. The same debate has occurred in the United States (admittedly, it's much easier to obtain a firearm in the US), and sometimes it seems as if it's one step up, two steps back...

Kingfisher

I don't think it's a bad idea, but what happens the first time a person gets attacked or even killed by a wolf? Can you imagine the media uproar?

This health and safety obseesed country would never allow it.

It would be extremely interesting but would only be possible in remote locations which within the U.K exist now only in Scotland.
Wolves are territorial and shy and would be uncomfortable in the Uks residential environment.

I think you're right in that the remote locations in Scotland would be the only possible places this kind of scheme could work.

Has anyone heard anything in the media about this recently?

Has anyone thought about the environmental impact wolves could have? Remember they are carnivorous, and will eat animals such as deer and maybe even badgers which aren't doing too well themselves. This wouldn't be a problem when you first introduced them, but if they started to thrive would you have to cull them to keep the population down? It would seem cruel to bring wolves to this country, then kill them because they are doing too well.

Then there are the farm animals that the wolves would undoubtebly attack for food (and who could blame them), this would lead to farmers hunting the wolves or having to pay there own money to erect some sort of defence against them. Even in the remote parts of Scotland there are sheep allowed to roam free, these would be easy pickings for a pack of wolves.

In the large open areas of Scotland I really don't think wolves killing sheep is going to be too much of a problem, but obviously the wolves will have to hunt to find food. How is this different from foxes or other carnivorous animals though?

It's not different, but the farmers wouldn't see it that way, and I wouldn't blame them really.

I was initially against the idea of Wolf reintroduction, as i thought of the initial fears. However now i believe its a great idea, They used to roam our lands until they were killed. I would love to see the return of all animals. The bear the Beaver Lynx Wolves etc. Also i believe it will boost tourism as currently British animals arent exactly seen as interesting the only chance they have of being harmed is the beast of Bodmin. People will love to see these wild beasts back in Britain

I can see the positive and negative side to this. I think it would be great to see the wolf roaming wild in this country again but, as Rob points out, there aren't many areas left to consider as suitable habitats for them. Plus they'd be persecuted beyond belief, look at the backlash badgers and foxes get and they are only a fraction of the size and mainly solitary hunters!

As Riana also points out all it would take is one attack on a human or a family pet and the H&S officials would have a field day. I mean, we already live in a country where Horse Chestnut trees are being cut down because children might use the conkers and hurt themselves, and apples etc falling from their tree are obviously such a dangerous threat to us humans that, for our own safety, all these highly dangerous, lethal killer trees are being removed from most community areas.

If the UK was a bit more rational I think a wolf reintroduction could be a good thing but with the current ways of thinking I believe we should consider what's best for the wolf and hold off for now.

Absolutely, definitely and without a shadow of doubt wolves should be re-introduced. Man exterminated wolves from most of Western Europe by the end of the 19th century and the last wolf in Great Britain was killed in Scotland in 1745. It's time we redress the great wrong that was done to this fantastic animal.

As the top of the food chain they are also essential in the maintenance of a healthy ecosystem by taking weak individuals from from heards of deer especially.

According to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, there has never been a recorded attack by a healthy wild wolf on an adult, so I think that wolves have far more to fear from man than the other way around. Therefore, any re-introduction would have to go hand-in-hand with an extensive education programme, otherwise the wolves won't stand a chance.

I think the re-introduction of wolves to their natural habitat is a very good idea for conservation and management reasons which are as follows.
The highlands of scotland (the persumed location for reintroduction) is an area of 25,000km2, and a relatively small human population. The Highlands is the last region of the UK where wolves lived before being exterminated completely. The Highlands also have the largest population of red deer and roe deer in almost any other part of Europe, red deer and roe deer are natural prey for wolves. Recent figures show that the 700,000+ population of deer has overtoped the Highlands carring capacity. Red deer in these numbers eat and trample everything, thus preventing the forest and flora from regenerating. The government calls for costly annual culls on the deer population, which are not economically effective. Reintroducing the wolf is not only a massive environmental step in its self but also towards restoring the Highlands natural integrity, and re-establishing an equilibrium.
The Highlands are the perfect place to reintroduce a breeding pair of wolves as is planned.

Brock

Hi Brock, welcome to the forums. A very interesting post.

It sounds like wolf reintroduction would do a lot of good in the highlands, and it is relatively sparsely populated by humans so human-wolf interaction would be at a minimum. It would be very difficult to get the balance just right between just enough wolves and too many though.

Reintroduction of lost species is a tempting prospect, particular when it comes to mammals and most of the key arguments are listed above so I won't go over them.

I don't think wolves is a good starting point for UK mammal reintroductions but wouldn't discount it happening in the future.

There is a fine line between reintroduction and landscape scale zoo keeping and you have to get the balance right. While you can't just release the animals and hope for the best, once the animals have established a viable population that is self sustaining, they need to be largely left alone (under some legal protection) and free to roam or they are not wild animals. I would certainly introduce more than 1 pair.

If we have to go back after 30 years and start interfering with the population, then to my mind, the reintroduction has failed.

What are all the other factors here? What's happening to the deer population and what would the impacts be on a wolf population. How many wolves can potentially be sustained by the available habitat and what natural factors would keep their population in check?

All reintroduction are resource hungry operations and wolves would not come cheap.

Resources for nature conservation are probably greater than they have ever been but so are the pressures on UK wildlife and habitats. Perhaps all our resources would be better focused on first protecting the many species that are still here but are only just clinging on - from the insect to the mammal.

When we have shown that we are capable of protecting what we have; restoring damaged habitats and bringing back species from the brink, not only will we have earned the privilege to return those species that we have lost but we will have created a balanced ecosystem for them to live in.

Wolves need to wait.