Bring back wolves to keep Britain’s deer in check, says Monty Don
WOLVES should be reintroduced to Britain, Monty Don has said, because huge deer numbers are killing off the country’s woodlands.
The BBC Gardeners’ World presenter believes humans have upset the delicate balance of our ecosystem, meaning animals such as deer no longer have natural predators and birds are vanishing from our skies.
Don told The Sunday Telegraph: “I think it’s an interesting idea to introduce wolves. Deer are a problem. The issue they have to face is public perception. We look at them as incredibly beautiful animals and think of culling them as murder.
“But all animals need to have predators and if deer eat all the trees then the wildlife that benefits from those trees will disappear.
“I’d love to see wolves in this country but it has to be done safely. I’m sure it’s possible as they’ve been reintroduced into Italy, and obviously in America. The chance of people being attacked by wolves is infinitesimally small.” But Don said because “we are on such an urban island”, the wolves will only be viable in remote places, and culling will still have to be part of the equation.
He said gardeners have an important role to play in saving wildlife – and for too long we have bee been battling the creatures in our gardens rather than working with them. In a new book, My Garden World, he writes of th the 40 years he has spen spent tending the same pa patch and watching th the birds and other wildlife he took for granted disappear due to human activity. “We are at a tipping point – it it’s never a catast strophic event, it’s a sm small accumulation of adverse circumsta stances and then you g get to the final s straw that breaks the camel’s back. I wanted to write the book because in our small back gardens it feels like what you do won’t make much difference and what is in your back garden is ordinary. That isn’t true at all.”
He said gardeners have to embrace the wildlife previously thought of as ‘pests’. “My attitude towards slugs and other ‘pests’ has changed over the years but I haven’t used pesticides or herbicides or anything like that for 40 years.
“Slugs are a symptom of a problem – they always want plants that are dying or overfed. It’s about having healthy
‘I would love to see wolves in this country but it would have to be done safely. I’m sure it would be possible’
plants and a balanced holistic garden. If you don’t want caterpillars, you need birds that eat caterpillars but you have to have some or they’ll go somewhere else. It’s all about balance.”
While once viewers marvelled at his tidy garden, Don now prides himself on being a bit scruffy to encourage hedgehogs, bugs and the birds which feast on insects. He also mourned the loss of wildlife which has disappeared nationally, but also from outside his window.
“Curlews have perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful call of all birds, and their call marks the seasons. Then they went silent. And starlings were seen as a pest as there were so many. Then suddenly they weren’t there any more and you’d realise you miss them.”
Monty Don wants wolves to be reintroduced to the countryside to help control a burgeoning population of deer. Lacking a natural predator, in their increasing numbers they are said to be a menace to woodland habitats and responsible for thousands of traffic accidents a year. Wolves, meanwhile, are quite safe to humans, says Mr Don. It is quite the role reversal. The next remake of Bambi will presumably be very different, with his mother’s death portrayed as a useful contribution to population control. There will be no more talk of wolves in sheep’s clothing, either, given the ecological damage caused by the latter. And what of Little Red Riding Hood? In the new version, the woodcutter won’t make the Big Bad Wolf release grandma from his belly. He will deliver a lecture on the benefits of rewilding.