Wolves in Great Britain
The earliest known remains of wolves in Britain are from Pontnewydd Cave in Wales, dating to around 225,000 years ago, during the late Middle Pleistocene (Marine Isotope Stage 7).
[5] King Edgar the Peaceful of England is traditionally recorded to have demanded, in 957, three hundred wolf pelts from the kingdoms of north and south Wales.
[8] The monk Galfrid, whilst writing about the miracles of St Cuthbert seven centuries earlier, observed that wolves were so numerous in Northumbria that it was virtually impossible for even the richest flock-masters to protect their sheep, despite employing many men for the job.
William the Conqueror granted the lordship of Riddesdale in Northumberland to Robert de Umfraville on condition that he defend that land from enemies and wolves.
By this time, wolves had become limited to the Lancashire forests of Blackburnshire and Bowland, the wilder parts of the Derbyshire Peak District, and the Yorkshire Wolds.
[6] Wolves in Scotland during the reign of James VI were considered such a threat to travellers that special houses called spittals were erected on the highways for protection.
Cuvier later pointed out that the number of wolf bones in Kirkdale was even lower than originally thought, as a lot of teeth first referred to as belonging to wolves turned out to be those of juvenile hyenas.
William Buckland, in his Reliquiae Diluvianae, wrote that he only found one molar tooth which could be positively identified as being that of a wolf, while other bone fragments were indistinguishable from those of domestic dogs.
[3] In a series of caves discovered in a quarry in Oreston, Plymouth, a Mr Whidbey found several bones and teeth of a species of canis indistinguishable from modern wolves.
Richard Owen examined a jaw bone excavated from Oreston, which he remarked was from a subadult animal with evidence of having been enlarged by exostosis and ulceration, probably due to a fight with another wolf.
The skull was exactly equal in size to that of an Arctic wolf, the only notable differences being that the sectorial molar was slightly larger and the lower border of the jaw was more convex.
[3] In 1999, Dr Martyn Gorman, senior lecturer in zoology at Aberdeen University and vice chairman of the UK Mammal Society called for a reintroduction of wolves to the Scottish Highlands and English countryside in order to deal with the then 350,000 red deer damaging young trees in commercial forests.
Scottish National Heritage considered re-establishing carefully controlled colonies of wolves but shelved the idea following an outcry from sheep farmers.
[16] In 2007, British and Norwegian researchers including experts from the Imperial College London said that wolf reintroduction into the Scottish Highlands and English countryside would aid in the re-establishment of plants and birds currently hampered by the deer population.
Paul Lister is the laird of Alladale Estate in the Caledonian Forest of North Scotland, and he has plans to reintroduce large carnivores into his wildlife reserves, such as wolves, lynx, and bears.
