Wolves could be reintroduced to Scotland as part of the battle against climate change if proposals by University of Leeds researchers became reality. Their study, published in Ecological Solutions and Evidence journal, predicts that releasing a pack of over 160 grey wolves into the Scottish Highlands would help woodlands to grow. This is because the carnivores would prey on the red deer who otherwise eat tree saplings and stop forests from regenerating.
No wolves for 250 years
Deer have had no natural predators in Scotland since the last wolf there was killed about 250 years ago. This means their population numbers across the UK have leapt, reaching around 450,000 in the 1970s to arrive at approximately two million today. There are more deer in the UK in 2025 than there have been for a thousand years, according to UK parliament figures.
The knock-on effect of that is that only about four percent of Scotland is forested today – a figure lower than in much of Europe. Greater coverage of native woodland would ensue if there were fewer deer to munch on trees, amounting to storage for a million tons of carbon dioxide every year, the scientists say. That makes up five per cent of the UK’s woodland carbon removal target.
Over 6000 tonnes of CO2 removed, per wolf
Humans do eat deer too and are encouraged to do so by Forestry England which says the creatures are an “extraordinarily ethical and sustainable” source of meat. However, venison is a game meat that sometimes makes consumers squeamish. They are perhaps put off by its strong flavour and association with cute characters such as the orphaned baby deer Bambi.
In contrast, each wolf, simply by eating deer and promoting tree growth, could help take 6,080 tonnes of CO2 out of Earth’s atmosphere, the researchers say.
How much is a wolf worth?
The idea of wolf rewilding is not popular with everyone. Farmers worry about an alpha predator’s impact on livestock. But one of the study’s co-authors is a farmer himself. Lee Schofield says it is important to “recognise that substantial and wide-ranging stakeholder and public engagement would clearly be essential before any wolf reintroduction could be considered”.
One option to promote that engagement could be for farmers and landowners to find a way to make money from the wolves’ carbon removal. Each individual wolf has been estimated to have a “valuation” of around £154,000 (around €186,000) according to current carbon accounting methods.
Campaigners in many European countries, including Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Ireland, have advocated schemes to reintroduce wolves. Their numbers have increased to around 12,000 in just under 70% of their former territory and their protection status has been downgraded as a result.
