Farmers reveal what they really think about reintroducing lynx and wolves to Britain and Ireland

The only howl I heard on a recent walk across the Garron plateau in the Glens of Antrim, Northern Ireland, was from a bitter, biting wind. But 300 years ago, the howls would most definitely have been lupine: This place was home to one of the last wolves in what is now the UK. The species clung on in other parts of Ireland until the late 18th century.

Lynx and bears probably disappeared from both islands much earlier, despite debates over the potential presence of lynx in early modern Scottish texts.

In Ireland, the evidence for lynx rests on a single bone from almost 9,000 years ago. But much more recently than this, wolves did not simply vanish from our lands—we got rid of them. We did so less because our ancestors read too many fairy tales, and more because of a confluence of political and economic factors.

As a political ecologist, I'm fascinated by how environmental change is strongly shaped by power dynamics and economic forces. This political ecology helps us understand our relationships with large carnivores across these islands—past, present and, potentially, future.

To investigate what's really behind the controversy that surrounds large carnivore reintroductions to Britain and Ireland, I spoke to people on the frontline of this debate—the farmers and conservationists—for my new report. Their answers were illuminating.

An easy assumption to make is that farmers think lynx and wolves would pose a threat to their livestock, especially sheep—but the conflict of interests is more nuanced. There are issues about everything from who might pay for the upkeep of any guard dogs or electric fencing, to which rural landscapes are considered wild enough for large carnivore reintroductions.

To explore different perspectives on this, including options for successfully managing the reintroduction process to minimize the risks to livestock, I interviewed all of the five main farming unions across both nations, as well as two key livestock organizations. For balance, I asked the same questions of three rewilding organizations too.