Lynx and wolves could return to England as rewilding task force set up by PM
Helena Horton
Fri, March 5, 2021

The Lynx could be returned to Britain

Boris Johnson has asked officials to set up a rewilding "task force" to gauge appetite for returning lynx and wolves to England, the Telegraph can reveal.

In the latest boost for rewilders, a group of stakeholders is already being brought together by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The group will contain farmers and anglers among ecologists and other experts, and it is hoped that by bringing those who may oppose reintroductions of predators into the conversation, minds may be changed and proposed schemes can go ahead.

Stakeholders in the taskforce will help draw up plans to bring back lost species, and discuss any issues landowners may have that need to be mitigated before any scheme goes ahead. Animals under consideration include lynx and wolves, as it is hoped they can keep England's rocketing deer population under control.

A consultation into the widespread release of beavers in England is also coming up this summer, the Telegraph can exclusively reveal, and it is hoped by ministers this will result in a blueprint for reintroduction strategies for other species.


Beavers can currently be released under licence in England, but only if they are kept fenced in. Applications have soared in recent years, as landowners have seen the revenue they can bring in from wildlife watchers and glampers. However, others have said that this strategy is nothing better than creating "wildlife zoos" and they need to be released properly.

Boris Johnson and a powerful group of cabinet ministers, including Lord Goldsmith and Michael Gove, are enthusiastic about the idea of reintroducing animals which went extinct in this country hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Carrie Symonds is also a fan of the idea, and now works for The Aspinall Foundation, which reintroduces rare animals to the wild in other countries.

However, there is opposition to the plans from some anglers, who worry that uncontrolled beaver populations could impact fish numbers, and farmers who are concerned large predators including sea eagles, lynx and wolves could snatch their livestock.

Senior sources inside Natural England, which is responsible for the licensing of beaver releases, hit back at angler groups and said the evidence shows the rodents actually improve fish numbers, as they boost biodiversity, and that dams are built to allow for the migration of river creatures.

An official told the Telegraph: "The anglers are quite rightly seen as a really important constituency for conservation who have actively been campaigning for it for years but they are losing sight of the bigger picture and that's a shame from my point of view.

"We need to get our wildlife into a decent state, it's a shame that anglers don't feel the same.

"They think beaver dams stop fish migrating but from the Ice Age to 400 years ago the salmon and sea trout populations were doing extremely well because beavers create habitat."

There has also been push back from farmers over recent reintroductions of sea eagles in Scotland and the Isle of Wight. They complain that the birds of prey like to snatch lambs and chickens, and could threaten farmland birds.

A new scheme to reintroduce the white-tailed eagle is being proposed in Norfolk, next to the Sandringham Estate, which is understood to be tentatively supporting plans.