Should wolves be reintroduced to the Scottish Highlands? In the mid-18th century the wolf disappeared completely from the Scottish Highlands. In the 1960s a proposal came to bring them back. So why hasn't it happened yet? The idea gained wider publicity only after the reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park in the United States in 1995 and has been debated and even almost realized ever since. The reintroduction of wolves and possibly bears and lynx would be of great benefit to Scotland's biodiversity and tourism. All one needs to do is educate people and get rid of the “big, bad wolf” persona. Scotland's post-Ice Age environment evolved with large predators that kept biodiversity in balance. Wolves, bears and lynx lived alongside herbivores such as deer, horses, cattle, wild boars and moose. These herbivores ate tree seedlings, preventing open meadows from being covered with forest, or fed on the understory of trees, keeping it open for a wide variety of plants which in turn provided food for many species. When humans began clearing forests and hunting both herbivores and carnivores, the balance changed and wolves, bears and lynx, along with wild boar and moose, disappeared from the Scottish Highlands. Without natural predators, red deer numbers have increased dramatically; this contributed to an already rapid destruction of the forests as deer ate the seedlings and thus inhibited natural regeneration. Scotland has now lost over 90% of the forest cover needed for many endangered species. Today, a lot of money is spent on deer culling and also on building electric fences to prevent deer from reaching the saplings. Firstly these fences cause visual pollution, as the countryside is often covered in...... half paper ...... with the many benefits it will bring to Scotland, then perhaps their attitude will change. While this would be a difficult task, it would be the biggest step towards wolf reintroduction. A few years ago there were plans to keep four wolves in a secure enclosure on the 50,000-acre Alladale estate, but the plans were shelved in the interests of animal welfare. Even though this plan never came to fruition, it shows that the issue was fully considered. The Alladale Estate is already home to moose and wild boar, while beaver and sea eagle have been successfully reintroduced to the Scottish countryside. When will it be the wolves' turn? The benefits that the wolf would bring to Scotland are both economic and environmental. The only thing stopping their reintroduction is society's negative perception of the wolf; and the general lack of ambition in achieving it.