Chris Packham: Reintroduce wolves to Scotland

Former The Really Wild Show host, who presents BBC nature series Springwatch, admitted the plans were “ambitious” but that Scotland could offer a good place for wolves to thrive.

Packham, who is promoting his new book Wildlife of the World, said: “I think we’ve got to be realistic and pragmatic, since the wolf disappeared in the 1740s our landscape has changed rather radically, so there would be very few places where wolves could make a living in the UK, that means probably areas of low human population, so we’re looking at Scotland, that sort of thing.

“It’s ambitious but there are other creatures we could introduce in advance of the wolf. We are actively thinking about putting lynx back at the moment. We’re moving towards re-introducing beavers, a very important species because they shape entire landscapes and generate opportunities for other life.

“But, yes, realistically the wolf coming back would be definitely a very good thing for the ecology of the UK but we’d have to mitigate that against the damage that they might do to farm stocks and things like that.”