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    Should wolves be reintroduced to the UK?
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    Should wolves be reintroduced to the UK?

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    31 Comments

    1. newnortherner21 on

      I’d be concerned that some people would capture them and want them as pets, or try to claim a dog is a wolf to use as a threatening weapon. So it would need some careful controls and management.

    2. nosdivanion on

      No. You have to realise how small this island is and how little truly wild space there is. Even if a couple of wolves could live and breed undisturbed for a couple of years, within a short space of time, they would run out of room, come into conflict with people, and end up being hunted.

    4. Tartan_Samurai on

      This has been talked about for years. Baswhen they say ‘The UK’, the mean the Highlands. Basically a part of the UK with hardly any humans and hundreds of miles of empty open space. I think it’s a good idea and hope they eventually go though with it.

    5. EdmundTheInsulter on

      No because in no time some idiot would just want to kill them all, as with badgers, seagulls, pigeons, foxes, squirrels – people just want to kill these animals, even for as little as noise (seagulls)

    7. lew916 on

      Yes predators are and essential part of any ecosystem. They are generally scared of people and tend to keep their distance. The only negative I see are conflict with farmers and people with pets.

    8. Harmless_Drone on

      We need more people to hunt and eat deer.

      People do not realise what a pest they are. They eat young trees and strip bark so any rewilding schemes are doomed to failure while deer levels are high as they are. Previously bears and wolves, and hunting, kept them in check but that’s no longer the case so the population continues to explode.

    10. AssignmentNo7636 on

      Am I missing something in the comments section? We live on less than 10% of the land in this country. Wolves will stay where it is coldest. They are talking the Scottish Highlands, where there is plenty of land.

    11. prustage on

      Personally yes, I thin k it would be good to re-introduce them to the highand areas of Scotland.

      But in practice no.

      It will just give the DM and other papers the chance to headline “Starmer’s Loony Left puts children’s lives at risk!” Well get an exclusive interview with some woman who saw a wolf on TV once and is now traumatised and “its cases like these that are bringing the NHS to breaking point. Think of the Children!!”

    12. borodan90 on

      We have been identified as one of the most ecologically deprived countries in the world . Yes they should , deer numbers are at unsustainable levels and we effectively have to cull them . Wolves will take care of it naturally for us and their populations will rise and fall at sustainable levels that is reflective of deer populations at the time

      Less people coming into the country and a greater control of the human population, less building of houses on greenfield sites and more wilding of our countryside . That is what ought to be happening . Cities build upwards , not outwards

    14. rez050101 on

      It always baffles me that the UK has no larger wild carnivores running around. The country has some remote space for it, like the Highlands and the northern part of Scotland. Even here in Belgium we have wolves again, but unfortunately our country has too many roads and cars and from the wolf pack only some individuals survived. I am pretty sure some wolves were killed by people intentionally, there were reports of them in urban areas and some sheep getting killed. I always hated that so many larger animals were butchered and massacred by humans in the 1800s.

    16. TisReece on

      The UK is in dire need of a predator for a healthy ecosystem. However, I think the Eurasian Lynx should be considered first and foremost. The Lynx was the last predator to be hunted to extinction in the UK and they rarely come into contact with humans. Similar to house cats, they are very skittish.

      It’s an easier sell than Wolves – so easy in fact that many areas in Yorkshire have already voted in favour of their introduction with over 90% of farmers voting in favour around a decade ago. Just waiting on the government to y’know….do *something*.

    20. SolitarySysadmin on

      I think releasing a bunch of wolves into parliament would be a great idea. 

      Also releasing them into Scotland along with some lynx would be fantastic for the ecosystem. 

    21. Elmarcoz on

      Yes, the British population has gotten too comfortable walking the highlands without being pinned and having their throats ripped out.

    22. 50_61S-----165_97E on

      I find rewilding issues interesting because they’re often well opposed by the very small number of local stakeholders, but overwhelmingly supported by the wider population who will probably never even visit the area during their lifetime.

      So do you listen to the 99% who want to see the environmental benefits, or the 1% whose livelihoods it affects?

    23. SamVimesBootTheory on

      In an ideal world yes but lynx are being proposed as an alternative that would fill the same niche and potentially would cause less human-wildlife conflict

      We need to do something though as our ecosystem has been unbalanced for a long time due to the whole ‘we lack large predatory animals’ thing.

    24. thegooch47 on

      Nope. No wolves please. It’s quite nice not worrying about wolves when going for a long walk with my kids. I’d prefer to keep not worrying. Cheers 👍

    25. FeralSquirrels on

      I’m all for it.

      Introduce them into the wilds. The forests. The rural areas.
      No, in fact – let’s not stop there!

      Towns, cities – let’s set them on the streets as a form of informal curfew.

      Put some in Parliment, I want to see a row of backbencher wolves in little hats, being just like people falling asleep in commons or guffawing.

    26. Galen476 on

      I don’t think it would be a good idea.

      Yes the Highlands would be a sensible place to start with, but ultimately it’s not that big, and it’s highly likely the wolves would start to expand their territory relatively quickly (there’s no practical way to keep them confined to the Highlands).

      I can see other people have mentioned wolves in Belgium or the Netherlands – they weren’t re-introduced here but have actually expanded their territory into these countries from other places. Same as in France. Their return to these countries has been highly controversial and a lot of farmers in particular are unhappy as they’re losing livestock to Wolf attacks.

      We have a lot of free roaming livestock in this country. I’m aware of lots of sheep + cattle in the north of England. I suspect there are also a decent number in various parts of Scotland too.

      On top of that the highly populated central belt lies just to the south of the Highlands, and beyond that there are plenty of cities in the north of England.

      We’re one of the more densely populated countries in the world, and it’s inevitable that there would be conflict with humans at some point quite quickly.

    27. Disciplined_20-04-15 on

      The UK has become one of the most nature-depleted countries in Europe, do we even have the wild areas with enough non-endangered species of prey to support such animals anymore? Wolves can roam 250 square kilometres.

      Even the “natural areas” of Scotland are mainly now monoculture tree stock for bio-pellet production. They don’t support much life.

      I recommend watching wild isles narrated by David Attenborough

    30. FoxDren on

      No they should not, purely because the ecosystem has been changed to such an extent that the reintroduction of wolves would destabilise it completely.