Rewilding really is a round of roulette

The shooting community has long been involved in successful projects aimed at reintroducing species to areas where they had become extinct. These have included grey partridges, greylag geese, water voles, red squirrels and ospreys. 

Releasing animals into unsuitable locations is a recipe for disaster. This was brought into stark focus recently with the illegal release of several lynx in the Scottish Highlands (News, 8 January). They were subsequently captured starving, with one dying shortly afterwards. It is just as cruel for people to release rescued urban foxes into the countryside, an ongoing issue reported by gamekeepers that receives little press attention. 

Beavers illegally released on the Tay in Scotland decades ago were not killed nor recaptured, due to legal wrangles about their protected status under European law. Left largely unchecked, their growing numbers have reportedly caused damage to flood defences in some areas. 

Rewilding has become synonymous with species reintroductions in the UK. In practical terms, rewilding projects are about improving habitats at a local level, coupled with species reintroductions as a marketing ploy to attract visitors, funding and media attention. Several shooting estates have diversified into eco-tourism and rebranded as “rewilding projects”, with beavers and rare breeds of pigs and horses the main species of choice. 

The concept of rewilding was developed by academics in the 1960s within the context of preserving and expanding areas of wilderness, in which large carnivores might become extinct if those spaces became too small and isolated. This carnivore element helps explain why longstanding rewilding advocates push for reintroductions of bears, lynx and wolves. 

Those illegal releases of lynx in Scotland have further undermined the case for species reintroductions in the minds of those with landowning, shooting, fishing and forestry interests. That said, there is a time and place for well-planned reintroduction projects, as long as they meet certain criteria. 

BASC has recently submitted feedback on a feasibility study for the release of beavers in Gloucestershire. In 2023, we responded to a consultation on proposals to release pine martens across south-west England. In previous years, we have also taken an interest in proposals and projects for reintroductions of ospreys, white-tailed eagles, great bustards, water voles and lynx. 

In principle, BASC supports species reintroductions where all other avenues of species recovery have been thoroughly explored or attempted unsuccessfully, and where evidence demonstrates that reintroduction would not only be successful but is necessary for landscape-scale species recovery as a whole. 

Species reintroductions, especially those of wide-ranging species, require consultation and collaboration between landowners and managers. BASC is supportive of these types of landowner-driven conservation collaborations. 

Control options 

BASC believes species reintroduction projects should adhere to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines on reintroductions, relevant national-level reintroduction codes, and include long-term monitoring and management plans to trigger non-lethal or lethal control options should undesirable outcomes occur. 

While we are unlikely to see apex mammalian predators such as bears, wolves and lynx roaming our farms, forests and hills, in the avian world reintroduced white-tailed eagles are now kings of the skies. Although I have yet to see one of these impressive birds in action, more may be on the way, with proposals to release white-tailed eagles in Cumbria, Wales, the Severn Estuary and Exmoor National Park. 

There are understandable concerns about the impact of these eagles on sheep farming, due to well-documented reports of individual birds preying on lambs. However, based on the latest research, lambs account for only 6% of prey items in the UK. 

Nature often sorts things out to a new balance, even in a man-made landscape. It is interesting to note that in Poland, researchers have found white-tailed eagles preying on young beavers. What happens next is anyone’s guess.