Report from Chris Smith

Landowner urges return of wolf and lynx to Scotland

By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent in the Daily Telegraph 26 th June 2002

The biggest foreign landowner in Scotland called yesterday for the reintroduction of wolves and lynx to add "excitement" to the countryside.

Paul van Vlissingen, a millionaire Dutch businessman, said the Government should consider bringing back large predators in order to boost overseas tourism.

He added that no one had been killed by a wolf in Europe in the past century, and suggested that the animals could be tracked by satellite, and farmers could be compensated if they attacked livestock.

Small conservation groups have called for the return of the European grey wolf, but Mr van Vlissingen is the first prominent landowner to support the idea. He said he would be happy to have them released on his estate in Wester Ross.

The last wolf in Britain was killed in Morayshire in 1743, but the lynx has been missing for the past 1,800 years.

He put forward the idea after publishing the result of a £300,000 privately-funded three-year study by biologists and botanists that showed that traditional culling is having little impact on deer numbers.

Scientists found that the population of 4,000 deer on the 80,000-acre Letterewe estate was controlled by winter weather and competition for food, rather than the annual cull by stalkers.

Mr van Vlissingen said the findings suggested that deer were not being properly managed, and called on the Scottish Executive to fund detailed research into the animals.

One of the aims of deer culling is to reduce grazing pressure to allow native trees to regenerate, but the study, by Prof Tim Clutton-Brock of Cambridge University and Prof Michael Crawley of Imperial College, suggests that common culling levels of 12 to 15 per cent would have to rise to 80 per cent to make a substantial difference to the survival of trees.

Mr van Vlissingen suggested that Scotland could be divided into zones managed for deer, and areas managed for native trees, with deer eliminated from the landscape.

He also proposed the return of the wolf and lynx - which would have a small impact on deer numbers - to help to revive Scotland's flagging tourist industry.

"I think wolves and lynx would fit very well into areas of land managed for deer," he said. "In this century there are no known cases of anybody being eaten by wolves in Europe, and there are thousands of people living among wolves in Canada and Alaska.

"With modern telemetry you can fit them with tags and follow them by satellite technology and if there is damage you can set up a system of compensation.

"Scotland needs to become far more successful than it is at the moment in tourism. Scotland has to create more excitement than the tired old monster of Loch Ness. There is an enormous interest in eco-tourism building up in the world."

Research four years ago found that 36 per cent of people would support the wolf being released in the wild, with 20 per cent undecided. However, the percentage was lower in the Highlands.

Rob Gibson, the Scottish National Party prospective candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross - where sporting estates dominate the countryside - said he would not rule out the idea, but it would have to be looked at very carefully.