Wolf Trust Wolf FAQ - Highland Wolves - Wolves & People - Grey Wolves - Conservation Status - Fallacies Web Address www.wolftrust.org.uk Email Address Wolf Trust

Fallacies Wolves are at home in water and are good swimmers. Courtesy Linda's Wolf Park Photos Wolves only live in forests! Wolves need wilderness to survive! Deer have no natural predator in the Highlands! Wolves have no natural predator in the Highlands! Wolves need a predator to hold their numbers down! The last wolf in Britain was killed in 1743! Wolves will attack me when I'm strolling over the hills! Before we reintroduce wolves in the Highlands, we must make laws to protect them! Before we reintroduce wolves in the Highlands, the habitat must be restored! Wolves thrive on war and social upheaval! Wolves only live in forests! Wolves live in all kinds of places from Mediterranean farm fields to Arctic snow fields. Wolves have even been researched who live on the outskirts of an east European city; the wolves went into town at night looking for food; people did not attack them because they thought they were domestic dogs (Promberger et al 1993). People used to think wolves needed remote forests or wilderness to live in, as these places were the only ones where wolves could be found in numbers. However, this was because people had killed them off from just about everywhere else and these places were the last refuges for wolves. Top of page Wolves need wilderness to survive! Ditto. Top of page Deer have no natural predator in the Highlands! What is 'natural'? Humans are the de facto predator of deer in the Highlands. Whether they are the deer's natural predator or not depends on how you define natural. Difficult word to pin down. Top of page Wolves have no natural predator in the Highlands! Ditto. Top of page Wolves need a predator to hold their numbers down! Wolves, like many other predators, such as foxes and mink, do not need a predator to hold their numbers down. Wolf pack numbers are regulated by territoriality (each wolf pack monopolises the food on an area of land from which it excludes other wolves). Territories space out packs and wolves without territory eventually die without successfully raising young. Thus wolves largely regulate their own numbers. Top of page The last wolf in Britain was killed in 1743! Harting (1880) relates how the last wolf in Britain was killed in 1743. The tale has not been substantiated and has the makings of a tall story. But whether true or not, more important is when the last population lost its viability to reproduce and grow. Only females can add to the population. If they cannot breed successfully (raise young who breed themselves so that the population survives), then the population will extinguish, even if there are several females and males left. There must have been a small number of wolves just before dying out. But because of chance factors, such as infertility or miscarriage or not being able to find each other, there came a time when this remnant population could no longer reproduce and was effectively extinct. So the wolf population was no longer viable well before 1743. Wolves probably died out the previous century (Yalden 1999). Top of page Wolves will attack me when I'm strolling over the hills! Wolves tend to keep away from people. If one gets too close to you when out for a stroll in the Highlands, throw sticks and stones at him and shout 'shoo!' This is what Italian shepherds do successfully. Top of page Before we reintroduce wolves in the Highlands, we must make laws to protect them! The law already exists to protect wolves. The Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) legally fully protects certain mammals in Britain who are listed in schedule 5. You only need add the wolf to the list to give wolves full legal protection. Top of page Before we reintroduce wolves in the Highlands, the habitat must be restored! Wolves can live almost anywhere there is food and they are not shot out (Mech 1970). Wolves have even been found in Romania who forage for food in the city of Brasov (Promberger et al 1993) and in other towns (eg Hart J 1999; Jhala 2001). There is plenty of food in the Highlands for wolves. Wolves will not have any difficulty living in the Highlands just as things are. Top of page Wolves thrive on war and social upheaval! This is often said contemptuously about wolves, implying that wolves are evil. However, what really happens is that in times of human war and social upheaval fewer people go round shooting, trapping or poisoning wolves, so naturally wolf numbers increase. Thus wolves do thrive on human conflict, but simply because that is when they are left alone. Top of page References Hart J (1999): Keeping the wolf from the door. International Wolf. The quarterly publication of the International Wolf Center. Vol 9 (2). Harting J E (1880): British animals extinct within historic times. Trubner, London. Jhala Y (2000): Human-wolf conflict in India. International Wolf Center Symposium Beyond 2000: Realities of Global Wolf Restoration. Duluth, Minnesota. Mech L D (1970): The wolf. Natural History Press, Garden City, New York. Promberger C & Schroder W (eds) (1993): Wolves in Europe. Munich Wildlife Society, Germany. Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981) Yalden D (1999): The history of British mammals. T & A D Poyser, London. Page 168 for extinction of wolves in Britain. Page revised 3.03