Bears and wolves will roam Brit woods in multi-million pound project (2024)

FAQs

Did the UK used to have bears and wolves? ›

The brown bear was a common top predator alongside the wolf and lynx following the last ice age, after lions and hyenas had disappeared. It is calculated there were over 13,000 bears in Britain 7,000 years ago.

Way back in the dim and distant past we did, however just about all have been made extinct. The last bear in England was killed in the 1240s, in Scotland in the 1430s. Wolves were reintroduced to Scotland in the 1990s, but were not doing particularly well and have to be culled, because there are - too many males-…

The brown bear, also known as the European brown bear, was present in Scotland until around the 10th century, but hunting and habitat loss led to its extinction. The last known Scottish brown bear was killed in the 9th century, and the species was officially declared extinct in Scotland in the 10th century.

The UK has yet to reintroduce predators like wolves and bears, but the idea of reintroducing wolves to Scotland has long been discussed. It's been put forward as a way of controlling deer numbers which are responsible for munching and destroying young trees.

The wolf is generally thought to have become extinct in England during the reign of Henry VII (1485–1509), or at least very rare.

Wolves were considered a danger to people and a threat to livestock and their existence was at odds with expanding animal farming landscapes.

Bears are thought to have become extinct in the UK in the early Medieval period, around 1,500 years ago. Wolves continued to roam the woodlands of England and Wales until the turn of the 16th Century and could be found wild in Scotland for up to 200 years after that time.

We used to have lynx, wolves and brown bears. Obviously, the British mainland is an Island, so once they were gone there was no way for them to be replaced. There has been suggestions of reintroducing predators to control the deer population. We do still have predators, including foxes, stoats, weasels and badgers.

Not far from the village of Killiecrankie in the Scottish Highlands, there is a densely wooded gorge through which the River Garry rushes. According to folklore, it is here (or somewhere very like it) that Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel shot the last wild-living wolf in Great Britain in 1680.

There are no bears in Africa. The Atlas bear that used to be in the areas of Morocco and Libya became extinct around the 1870s. All the other bears are in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. While their habit can generally seem widespread, each of the major areas has its own subspecies.

Does Scotland have predators? ›

The Scottish Wildcat is Britain's only wild feline and only remaining large predator. Scottish Wildcats are classified as Critically Endangered and it is estimated that there are between 100 and 300 in the wild, concentrated in very remote locations.

Although we lost the wolf, bear, elk and lynx to hunting long ago, Scotland still has a wealth of land mammals. Today, our majestic red deer is our largest wild land mammal and is widely distributed throughout Scotland. Our other native deer, the striking and delicate roe, is found across mainland Scotland.

We have successfully reintroduced white-tailed eagles to Scotland in recent decades and are in the process of reintroducing beavers.

Wolves are not coming back to the wild in Britain in the foreseeable future, because society is not ready. Wolves suffer from a long history of demonisation and myth-making.

Large mammals are not particularly numerous in Great Britain. Many of the large mammal species, such as the grey wolf and the brown bear, were hunted to extinction many centuries ago.

Mentions of wolves continue for a number of years after 1212 but in 1281, Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) ordered the extermination of all wolves in England.

CAVE LIONS lived in England and Wales during the Pleistocene era. They disappeared about 40,000 years ago. There were still cave lions in Thrace and Macedonia until the time of the ancient Greeks.

Wild boar survived in England until at least 1300, but had been hunted to extinction by the 17th century. They are still common throughout continental Europe, particularly where extensive forests exist.

From inter-glacial times (roughly 50,000 years ago), before the complete formation of the seas that now separate Scotland and the rest of Britain from the European continent, until the beginning or even the middle of the 18th century, wolves were part of the natural wild fauna of what is now called Scotland.