By Graham Wellstead.

In his thought-provoking piece, Graham Wellstead gets his teeth into the question of whether wolves should be reintroduced to the UK. Reflecting on historical accounts and personal experiences, Graham navigates the complexities surrounding this debate. He highlights the ecological and societal considerations, urging readers to ponder the implications of coexisting with these apex predators in a modern landscape. Join us as we explore the prospect of wolves roaming the British Isles and confront the challenges of ecological restoration and human-wildlife coexistence.

Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood, two versions, one French the other German, tell of the little girl, seriously in need of glasses, eaten by a wolf. Both dated in the 17^th century. Rather than a warning about wolves it is morality tale teaching children to beware of strangers. The German version; Grimms Fairy Tales, is rather more graphic as the wolf eats both the grandmother and the child. A woodman saves them by opening its stomach while it sleeps – rather a stretch of imagination, fills its belly with stones, and drowns it.

To give an accurate date for the demise of the last wolf in the British Isles is the step into something questionable. The last wolf in England is reputed to have been killed in the 14^th Century, and in the UK as a whole in the 17^th Century.  Certainly, in Anglo Saxon times the wolf was numerous throughout the country and especially in the heavily wooded areas on the Welsh borders. There was a hunting season – wolf pelts were highly prized. King Athelstan imposed an annual tribute of 300 wolf skins from the King of Wales.

Further North villagers in Sutherland had to give up burying their dead in the area, and moved the graveyard to Handa Island to stop the wolves digging up and eating those freshly dead. If this were to occur today, imagine the outcry.

Wolves have not lived in the UK for 300 years, but elsewhere they are spreading rapidly.

The population in Germany is growing and spreading. Something must have happened to cause this.  In the 1950s I was stationed in various cities in West Germany, notably Dusseldorf, West Berlin, before the wall was built, and Dortmund. We went on exercises all over the British sector and as far as we were aware, the wolf did not exist. Also attitudes at the time would not allow it to prosper had it done so. With end of the cold war, many farms were abandoned in the East and wolves were able to travel and spread westward. They have already spread into Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and there are already over 100 packs in France, from which they were absent up to the early 90s. They were aided by heavy protection throughout the EU which continues although a recent killing of a 40-year-old pony by a lone wolf has put a price on its head. It is ironic that this pony, according to a recent Guardian article, was owned by the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyden. She and her family being understandably upset. Currently under EU law wolves can only be killed under exceptional circumstances.

The wolf has adapted swiftly and surely to human dominated landscape. Currently there are no serious plans that I am aware of to reintroduce wolves in the UK. Although in the 1990s there were. An attempt was made to obtain permission for a release in the Cairngorms, but the plans fell at the first fence. What would the reaction to wolves in the New Forest in Hampshire, or the moorland of Dartmoor and Exmoor be? Certainly, they would add a natural control to the deer population, and perhaps the increasing wild boar. But what of the owners of the free-living ponies in those places. what would they think, feel and do when their stock became part of the diet.  And there are sheep. It is of course fair comment to say that shooting wolves will not teach them to leave sheep alone.

At this time wolves had been returned to Yellowstone Park. It was not long before they expanded outside the perimeters into the surrounding farmland. Yellowstone is six times larger than the Cairngorms. In square miles only 3 times, which was a surprise, but only half of the Cairngorms is truly unspoilt wilderness. Without doubt, as is shown in Europe, the wolves would spread rapidly. The last wolves in the UK were exterminated when the human population was rising fast, reaching around 7 million by 1750. Today our population is also rising and is now in excess of 67 million approximately ten times greater.

Is there really a place for wolves in the UK?

In 1990 I was visiting Alberta, where among other things I was able to come face to face with a group of wild wolves in a captive situation. I had been present when a she wolf trapped in the ice in the Saskatchewan River, was rescued and added to the pack. A few days later I was invited to meet them. They were kept by a scientist/vet – Mike Person, who was conducting experiments for the Canadian Government. His brief was to discover why, where a male domestic dog is fertile 365 days a year, a male wolf is only fertile for two weeks, but a wolf hybrid has the full year-round fertility of the dog.  Sadly, the answer was not found and the government withdrew their funding.  I was taken into the huge enclosure to meet the pack of about 20 animals. I was soon surrounded by them, yet they did not give the impression of being hostile, although they did try to eat my shoes.  Mike told me that one male decided to challenge him for the post of pack leader and knocked him down twice. He managed to get to the gate and escape, and next day returned with a tyre iron and a .45 pistol, but the wolf showed it subservience, suggesting his action the day before showed who was boss. He fed his pack on road kill white tailed dear which were stored in the open frozen solid in contorted positions. His dogs, German Shepherds, burrowed into the pen and shared the meat with the wolves – quite extraordinary!

Wolves are definitely not suitable pets, as Mike discovered when he had cubs in his house. No is not a word they understand, and their way of discovering their world is to chew everything, including the power point electric plugs on the wall. Cubs are cute, and a group singing in unison can be something to see and hear, but the hypnotic stare of a wolf is enough to have a chill run down your spine.

The last wolves in the UK were exterminated when the human population was rising fast, reaching around 6.5 million by 1750. Today our population is also rising, and our islands now hold in excess of 67 million people; approximately ten times greater. Wolf human confrontation is inevitable, not to mention the threat to livestock, and I am not just talking farm stock. Imagine walking through woodland with your cockapoo when a wolf appears out of the bracken.  Much as I admire these wonderful animals, I fear their introduction would be a serious mistake.

Graham Wellstead