Should we keep the wolf from the door

WILL the eerie howl of the wolf ever be heard again in Scotland's wild places? There are many who believe that, along with other once-indigenous species such as the lynx, bear and beaver, the wolf should be reinstated in what, until the mid-18th century, was its natural territory. They point to the potential economic benefits of "green tourism", and to a vastly expanding red deer population with no natural predators.

On Monday, the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) will host a major public debate on the pros and cons of species reintroduction and the broader restoration of Scotland's natural habitats, Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?, in the Kelvin Gallery of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum. It promises to be a lively forum on a controversial topic. Even the suggested reintroduction of the European beaver, which last gnawed logs in Scotland some four centuries ago, has been a cause for concern in some quarters (although the Scottish Government is currently considering an application from the SWT and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland for a trial reintroduction in Argyll's Knapdale Forest).

When it comes to predators, however, and particularly the wolf, with its traditional image as a slavering predator of children and grandmothers, not to mention sheep, the prospect of reintroduction worries some – particularly among a farming community understandably concerned about what havoc a reintroduced pack of wolves might wreak on their flocks. Yet, at the same time, there is growing interest in finding somewhere in Scotland where Canis lupus and other formerly extinct species might run free, either in a 23,000 acre Jurassic Park-style enclosure, as proposed by the businessman Paul Lister for his Alladale Estate in Sutherland, or at liberty in some suitable remote area. Some proponents point to the success of wolf-related tourism in Alaska, where parties of visitors go out with "howlers" who mimic the native wolves' calls and the animals respond. They also flag up the boost to wildlife tourism in Scotland associated with bird reintroductions such as the sea eagle, osprey and red kite. Others, like Toby Aykroyd (see right), an advocate of large-scale habitat protection and restoration, warn against becoming too sidetracked on individual species issues and stress under-recognised broader benefits of wild land renewal in terms of social benefits and even downstream flood mitigation.

Others look to Europe, where countries such as Norway and Germany are having to look at livestock protection and compensation schemes to cope with wolf populations – no respecters of political boundaries – which have immigrated from adjoining territories.

Among all the potential "reintroductees", inevitably it is the wolf which attracts the headlines, says Peter Cairns, the award-winning wildlife photographer and founder of Tooth and Claw, an education initiative which aims to improve understanding of Britain's predators and associated issues. He'll be opening Monday's forum, setting the scene, as he puts it: "I'll describe what the issues are, both for and against large predator introduction."

Cairns believes ecological considerations are not an issue with reintroduction of the predator, but human perceptions. "I think what we've discovered at Tooth and Claw is that people find it quite hard to stand back and take an ecological view and consider how wolves might help or hinder the human race in the long term. One of the objectives of this debate is to try and broaden people's horizons and perceptions."

Ask him whether anything he's seen on his travels might allay the fears of the agricultural community and he laughs: "Not really. I think wherever there are wolves and people and their activities, one of which is farming, there are going to be difficulties, and there are no two ways about that. If wolves came into Scotland today, there would be livestock casualties."

However, he has visited Germany, "where wolves have returned, quite unannounced, over the past ten years, slipping over the Border from Poland. Two things have happened there which are interesting. There has been a major education campaign which has been very successful – you can imagine, wolves crossing the border and all hell breaking loose, everybody locking up their children. But seven years on, attitudes have changed tremendously. The other thing is that the German government has put a lot of money into livestock predation mitigation, giving grants to farmers to put up electric fences, training livestock guard dogs, and so on."

The last wolf in Scotland is thought to have been killed – and beheaded, just for good measure, in 1743 by a hunter called MacQueen, whose famous account has come down to us, though in suspiciously well-turned Scots for someone who would almost certainly been a Gaelic speaker: "As I came through the slochd by east the hill there, I foregathered with the beast.

"My long-dog there turned him. I buckled wi him, and dirkit him, and syne whuttled his craig, and brought awa his countenance for fear he might come alive again, for they are very precarious creatures… "

However elaborated-upon that account may be, his reference to "precarious creatures" resonates: thanks to centuries of demonisation, extermination and habitat destruction, the animal's situation in many parts of the world is indeed precarious. But, given its often-argued incompatibility with human activity, are we likely to see it again in Scotland? "If you'd asked me that five years ago, I'd have said no," says Cairns. "But values and attitudes are changing. One thing often overlooked is that Britain may have to consider the desirability of introducing these animals as part of EU legislation, and it may come when the rest of Europe is saying, 'We're doing our bit to allow the expansion of wolf populations, what are you doing?' It may become a social, legislative obligation."

YES

TOBY AYKROYD, vice-chairman of the Wilderness Foundation and a trustee of the BBC Wildlife Fund.

THERE are tremendous, genuinely historic opportunities now for large-scale restoration of natural habitat, driven by social and economic factors as much as environmental ones.

These can offer benefits to a wide range of interested parties, including local communities, landholders and businesses, as well as wider societal interests, including urban-social projects – youth development, even peace and reconciliation (the Wilderness Foundation, for instance, has a reconciliation project in Northern Ireland).

So far as species reintroduction is concerned, we have to be careful and not skew the debate away from these very realistic and very radical opportunities on to one or two contentious focuses.

There are opportunities here for selective reintroduction – for example beaver, which has been exhaustively assessed and has been reintroduced in many European countries with considerable success and very little negative impact.

When it comes to looking at broader reintroduction issues, we prefer to put emphasis on large-scale restoration through habitat rejuvenation. Very large areas of Scotland may be wild in the sense of being empty and underdeveloped, but they are not natural, and with restoration you will automatically get a considerable element of reintroduction of species that were previously existent in an area but had moved out because of habitat degradation.

It may not be headline-grabbing, but the spread of osprey, pine marten, otter and so on are just as important in terms of rebuilding biodiversity.

We need to deal with the politics of what is achievable, and take things one step at a time. I know that studies have been done on the wolf, but that is a very distant end of the spectrum at the moment.

There are very real and radical opportunities for very large-scale landscape restoration and looking at the staged reintroduction of previously native species which have left particular areas and then, in sequence, if you like, we can certainly now go for beaver, and could have other species in future… there has been talk about boar and about lynx.

The wolf is a wonderful idea, but any agenda dealing with wolf reintroduction must be handled with enormous care and with full consensus from all relevant interested parties, otherwise there is a danger of clouding the issue and even log-jamming the more immediately achievable elements of what is anyway a very radical agenda.

JONATHAN HALL, head of rural policy, National Farmers' Union Scotland, will be addressing the forum on "reintroductions and rural concerns".

I'LL be expressing reservations rather than outright opposition. Our position is that we're not opposed to reintroductions per se, but we do believe that they need to be very controlled and considered, with all the issues assessed in terms of economic loss, impact on environment and on other species, and on development opportunities and so on.

That's the view of NFU Scotland and I think it's probably the view shared by other land-management organisations, although I can't speak for them.

Farmer are land managers, they're responsible for water quality as well as habitat management, wildlife and so forth.

It's difficult to see how throwing an ill-considered addition into the mix is going to help what we've already got.

If there is clear and demonstrable economic loss (as a result of predator reintroduction], then some sort of compensation mechanism needs to be put in place. The sheep industry in particular is on its knees, and if lambs or breeding stock are being picked off, there needs to be an adequate mechanism to make sure compensation is put in place. There's already an eagle scheme in Mull (where sea eagles have been reintroduced], for when lambs are taken, but it's also about positive management farmers can undertake to ensure that the species thrive in the right way.

Arguments about wolves helping control red deer? They could, in a very marginal sense, but given the population spread of red deer, we'd have to have an awful lot of wolves feeling pretty hungry across wide tracts of Scotland to make any impact.

And the impact of that on other interests – notably farming, but also on communities in remote areas and indeed on recreational interests might be quite interesting.

So there are a number of complicated issues here. Our bottom line is that anything that comes forward as a proposal needs to be extremely well thought out and trialled on a proper basis, and at the end of such a trial, if it doesn't work, there needs to be an exit strategy that might involve the removal of the species reintroduced.

WILL WE SEE THEIR LIKE AGAIN?

BEAVER

SCOTTISH beavers were hunted into extinction during the 16th century, mainly for their pelts. It has been reintroduced to 24 European countries, and proposals for a trial reintroduction in Argyll are currently before the Scottish Government.

WILD BOAR

HUNTED out of Scotland in the 17th century, the wild boar is a vigorous presence in woodland in Europe. Proponents of reintroduction argue its rooting would help clear unwanted undergrowth, or that boar hunting could help boost rural economies.

BROWN BEAR

THE brown bear was probably extinct in Britain by the tenth century. It still inhabits parts of Eastern Europe, and has been reintroduced to the Pyrenees, but its occasional aggressiveness suggests that we're unlikely to see it back in the foreseeable future.

LYNX

THE lynx once roamed in the great Caledonian forest, but is thought to have been extinct by medieval times due to deforestation, declining deer populations and persecution. A natural predator of deer, it has been re-established in some European countries.

BISON

THE forest-dwelling European bison has been all but extinct except for a small protected herd in Poland. It is seen in certain quarters as a suitable candidate for restored natural forest here.

WOLF

EXTINCT here since the mid-18th century, but currently expanding in remoter parts of Europe, the wolf is the most charismatic of our extinct animals, but also the one whose reintroduction would prompt most concern, understandably in the farming community.

SEA EAGLE

THOUGH once abundant in Scotland, our last sea eagle is thought to have been shot on Shetland in 1918. It was successfully reintroduced in the north west, prompting tourism, but they have been known to take the occasional lamb. Last year reintroduced in the east.