Wolves, Would We Want Them? - By Frank Brophy

For almost two years now, a low-key debate has been ongoing about re-introducing wolves into Ireland. The species had been eliminated in this country around 1786 and its likely that there was a legitimate reason for doing so.

In 2019 the leader of the Green Party suggested that wolves should be reintroduced into Ireland. Mr. Ryan stated that wolves should have a place in Ireland’s environment and would contribute positively to the country’s eco-system and national habitat. That statement left most people, including many conservationists, aghast!

Just how wolves would contribute to our eco-system and national habitat has yet to be explained. In 2020 NPWS issued a statement that it had no plans to re-introduce wolves in Ireland. While we have to fully accept and respect the NPWS position, everyone knows that the stroke of a ministerial pen is all that is required to overturn any given situation.

The current relevant minister is a member of the Green Party and that alone is enough to raise concerns among the farming community, country sports enthusiasts, deer management personnel and country folk generally.

Such concerns are warranted as we well remember not too many years ago when the Green Party’s price for participation in Government resulted in the closure of the Ward Union Hunt. That was unlikely to benefit the nation’s economy or reduce carbon emissions. It can only be seen as furthering Green plans to curtail country pursuits.

Latin students will remember the Romulus and Remus fable - twins who founded of the city of Rome. Supposedly abandoned by their mother in surrounding hills the infants were discovered by a she-wolf who suckled them in a cave until such times as they could fend for themselves. Following many adventures the pair went on to establish a city along the river Tiber Rome. A good story but nothing more, if for no other reason than a nursing shewolf would simply have viewed a pair of abandoned infants as a free lunch.

Wolves were known man-eaters several thousand years ago. Canis Lupus has been around for a long time, probably as long as humans and has gained a reputation as a man eater in Europe, also earning much antipathy for preying on livestock to the point that many countries engaged in culling exercises.

They were finally eradicated in Ireland towards the end of the 1700s, the last one reportedly being killed in 1786, approximately 100 years after Britain had eliminated them. Their predations in these islands resulted in expressions such as “wolf-whistle” the “big bad wolf” and “wolfing down food” entering the English language.

The Irish wolfhound is so-called from its wolf- hunting days. Remember Little Red Riding Hood - or Hitler’s Uboat Wolf packs in the Atlantic? All related to predatory behaviour.

European wolves were and still are known Rabies carriers. Being social animals this disease spreads easily among packs. Woe betides the human bitten by a wolf! It was, and today in certain circumstances still is, a death sentence if a human is bitten by a

Rabies carrier. Many records exist of human deaths in Europe caused by marauding wolves in the past. On a one only basis the wolf usually backed off attacking man, but a hungry pack sensing fear wouldn’t! A highly intelligent animal, the wolf is extremely capable of stalking its prey and striking at the most opportune moment.

Down the centuries France appears to have recorded more casualties than any other European country. Parish records from the mid 1700s show over 50 deaths caused by marauding wolves in central France alone.

Single individuals tending livestock or unaccompanied small children were their main target. In 1900, a wolf entered a classroom and killed a teacher, and around the same time a young girl was eaten near her home in the Dordogne. Eleven children were eaten in Portugal in 1945, followed in 1956 with an Italian postman on his delivery route not far from Rome being killed and eaten. That same country also reports a soldier being killed by a wolf pack as he tried to defend himself with a bayonet.

Further east, Poland, Rumania, Russia and Finland suffered major wolf problems. Unfortunately WW2 also provided a gruesome abundant supply of unburied bodies in the frozen wastes of Russia resulting in countless thousands of the species acquiring a taste for human flesh.

Following WW2 the Soviet Union engaged in a major Wolf extermination programme, but in keeping with that State’s secrecy policy little is known in the West about the result - with just one exception. In an unstipulated year during the 1960s Russia reportedly shot 30,000 wolves following 168 attacks on humans and 70,000 farm animals having been killed.

Finland which borders the then Soviet state was likewise obliged to take action. So severe was the problem there that the air force was used for bombing and machine-gunning known wolf haunts in forestry areas.

A former Finnish pilot during that country’s Winter War with the Soviet

Would livestock like this be an obvious target? Union and the later WW2 period told me in the 1980’s that he had been involved in wolf hunts flying a German supplied aircraft. It sounded implausible and wasn’t taken too seriously - until I did some research for this article. Unfortunately that old gentleman, Marti Silanpaa, is no longer with us.

The wolf population is on the increase throughout Europe, as must be the risk factor to humans. The EU operates an ongoing programme designed to keep Europe rabies-free, although there’s a constant threat from some Eastern European countries. Britain had a minor outbreak in the early 2000’s. France and Spain suffer occasional outbreaks, usually caused by the illegal importation of dogs from Morocco and Algeria.

Could a farmer shoot a marauding reintroduced wolf?

All of which begs the question as to why we would want wolves anywhere on this island? The farming community’s livestock would be an obvious target for them. Currently a farmer is within his rights to shoot rampaging dogs attacking sheep or livestock and we all know that this is a huge problem during the lambing season. Theoretically, if wolves attacked livestock or sheep in Ireland would a farmer risk prosecution by shooting them, jeopardise his firearms certificate and possibly a portion of his livelihood? This issue is ongoing in a number of European countries where farmers who shoot wolves worrying their animals are open to prosecution. Wild deer don’t have any predators in Ireland and it has been suggested that the introduction of wolves would create a natural balance. Perhaps it might, but would a wolf stop to distinguish between wild deer, farm animals, or a border? We know the answers and can but wonder if there’s a hidden agenda in all of this. Given that the Ward Union Hunt was scuppered as the price for political support, would the introduction of wolves into Ireland be the beginning of the end for licensed deer stalking and culling, having become a pawn in some future political wrangling? Just prior to last Christmas game shooting was banned for a period during Covid-related restrictions. One can but wonder if a green influence was involved! Thankfully that ban was overturned in the High Court following a successful NARGC challenge. As it stands, we have the NPWS statement regarding no plans to introduce wolves into this island and we must accept it. Hopefully that position won’t change because the loss of even one human life through wolf attack would be far too high a price to pay for a tiny minority’s dotty dreams.

Editor’s Note: Readers may also wish to visit BBC’s Future Planet website where the question is posed: ‘What would a truly wild Ireland look like?’ See: https://www.bbc.com/future/ article/20210211-rewilding-can-irelandregrow-its-wilderness?