Arguments for reintroducing wild carnivores into the British Isles are often deployed on ecological or (increasingly) economic lines. In this article I discuss the cultural arguments: drawing on the significance of megafauna to communities I’ve visited in Asia and Africa and highlighting the potential benefits to communities closer to home.
The UK: isles of carnivore ghosts
As the United Kingdom government have begun to fulfil international commitments1,2,3 by reintroducing some extirpated birds and small mammal species,4 parallel civil society movements have both lawfully and unlawfully reintroduced species indicating some strong support for rewilding from the UK public.5,6 Unlike other similarly crowded European nations, the UK’s carnivore guild has been eliminated,7 (including wolves [Canis lupus], bears [Ursus arctos] and Eurasian lynx [Lynx lynx]) a likely driver of the country’s dwindling biodiversity.8,9,10,11,12
Direct persecution or the over-hunting of prey by people has caused population and range collapses in large carnivores,13,14 particularly the cat family Felidae, worldwide.15 Lynx went extinct in the UK 600-500 years ago likely due to persecution and anthropogenic deforestation and overhunting of deer.16,17,18 These days, deer in the UK number around two million, double the country’s natural carrying capacity, and Lynx have been proposed for the next mammalian reintroduction to stabilize deer populations.19,20,21 Predicted benefits include forest regeneration; reduced agricultural damage, traffic accidents and expensive deer culling;22 improved the health of deer populations;23 and numerous benefits for British ecology and ecosystem services.24,25,26,27,28,29,30
The totemic value of carnivores to people
The British public stand to benefit ecologically and financially from the reintroduction of carnivores, and we are subscribed legally to bringing them back. But more importantly, what would it inspire in us to have these species roaming our forests and grasslands once again?
Since graduating with a zoology bachelors from the UK, I’ve spent the last eleven years living in South-East Asia and then East Africa. My first view of Kenya from the plane was magical – vast grassland and savannahs stretched out below and I knew that when I stepped off the plane, my feet touched the same earth that lions walked. A thrill ran through me.


I believe many conservationists are shameless charismatic megafauna enthusiasts at heart, because we are human, and megafauna, whether our predator or our prey, were critical to our survival as a young species – our brains evolved to pay attention to them. It should be no surprise that one of the oldest examples in Europe we have of human imagination, the Löwenmensch, is an ivory figurine chimera with the body of a human and a lion head, possibly of religious importance.31 More recently, 6,000 years ago humans were taming and caring for adult bears in eastern France – a dangerous and heavy investment for Mesolithic people, suggesting bears were of great significance for them.32 While I followed the lion to Africa, our Neanderthal ancestors may have followed them out: trailing cave lion over land bridges to scavenge from their kills, and upon expansion across Eurasia, the overlap between Neanderthal and cave lion territories throughout the continent was extensive, even sharing the same cave systems.33 Thousands of years later, international brands from Jaguar cars to Lynx deodorant utilize the imagery of these apex predators to sell their products, the wildlife tourism industry is worth 135 bn USD (even in the years recovering from Covid-19),34 and The Lion King remake has grossed over 1.6 bn USD worldwide since its release in 2019.35
I’ve been lucky enough to take many friends and family on safari now, I never tire of seeing their faces light up at their first encounter with a lion; Europeans, Australians and North American in awe of the abundance and proximity of such large and charismatic animals. On a psychological, emotional level, we are connected to large animals. We can see this phenomenon play out at a population level and feel it on the personal level.
Culture informs Tolerance informs Coexistence
In Africa and parts of Asia, where people have been coexisting with large carnivores for millennia, the connections are often integrated into culture, religion and folklore and informed by an intimate knowledge of wildlife behaviour and ecology. Samburu friends tell me that the elephant are their kin, it is forbidden to kill an elephant and if you do, no one will be your best man at your wedding; a great dishonour in their community. The Samburu perceive elephants as individuals and groups with characters and histories rather than as a population.36 Each Samburu clan has a totemic animal which they perceive as sacred to their community.

I learned from Bunty Tao, an Indigenous ranger from Arunachal Pradesh, India, that his tribe see the tiger as their brother. For the Nyishi tribe hunting tigers is taboo.37 The Living with Tigers report (reviewed on ECOS 43 (3.3.1)) details many other cultural traditions where tigers are sacred: featured as the king of all animals in the Chinese zodiac; prominent in Hindu, Taoist and Buddhist mythologies; and seen as protective shamans and spirits in Korea.38
Cultural and spiritual beliefs are recognised as more and more important in species conservation, but they are also fundamental for reintroductions. And in places where species targeted for reintroductions have been extirpated for hundreds of years, how the species is perceived by local people will be critical (Figure 4).39,40
Creating a culture of coexistence in the UK
Whilst rewilding is gaining popularity41 and 45% of the UK public support lynx reintroduction,42 potential negative social consequences and concerns over the politicization of lynx and rewilding as a broader concept have also garnered much attention.43,44,45,46,47 Introducing a carnivore to the UK’s multi-use landscapes, is contentious,48 and communities here have no experience of coexistence with large carnivores,49 both likely precursors to conflict.50 Lynx returning to western Europe have caused some conflict predominantly through the infrequent depredation of livestock.51,52,53 Notably, perceived conflicts were exacerbated in areas where wild ungulate numbers were low54 (unlike in the UK) or where there was little social goodwill towards the species,55 which can be avoided in the UK. The effect of these conflicts is largely to reduce human tolerance for the species’ presence, often resulting in efforts to limit the species’ density or distribution through lethal means.
The African elephant and the tiger have the second and third highest number of reported Human-Wildlife-Conflict (HWC) incidence of terrestrial vertebrates globally.56 The Samburu elephant and the Nyishi tiger teach us that cultural significance can underpin coexistence through generating public support and tolerance for species that are heavily associated with human-wildlife conflict (Figure 4).

The lynx is still a blank slate for much of the British public. The UK has just a few scraps of cultural connection to the enigmatic cat today: a few Welsh words, one poem and a place name.57 Without this history and mythology, if conservationists are serious about returning the species, we need to retrofit lynx into British culture, engendering a cultural significance to the lynx in order to gain public support for their reintroduction and protection and tolerance of future conflict.
The British public are already asking for better education to support beaver reintroductions,58 indicating an appetite for knowledge that could benefit lynx reintroduction efforts. But outreach is not limited to education, we should aim for inspiration. To engender a love of Britain’s potential new residents, we need to centre them in our culture, that means harnessing our mediums of culture to celebrate this species: film, music, art (Figure 5) etc.

If we decide to return lynx to our landscapes, a careful selection process will likely take place to select the most appropriate individuals behaviourally and ecologically from Europe’s lynx forests. Aside from the myriad of behavioural and genetic traits that set the different populations of Europe apart, their coats are remarkably diverse: from leopard-like rosettes, to cheetah-like spots, to lion-like plain coats. I have heard many Kenyans from different counties boasting of the supreme beauty of their giraffe over other counties (Figure 6) – could a future British public advocate similarly for their lynx that proudly sport a pattern of cultural significance roses?61,62

The reintroduction of wolves to the UK is something we must start a serious conversation about along with their reintegration into our culture. Unlike lynx, wolves pose a small but real risk to human life and the intersubjective symbol of the wolf carries a lot more baggage. Moreover, the return of wolves to western Europe has been by natural recolonisation; when it comes to potentially dangerous species there is a huge gulf between natural recolonization and active translocation. For these reasons, wolves may require a complete rebranding and a lot more educational outreach on their ecological importance to engender a warm welcome from the public.
The lynx could be used to both guide outreach planning on wolves, but also to begin a conversation about the importance of carnivores both ecologically and culturally. The future of British lynx hangs in the balance, and with it, the future of all potential British carnivore reintroductions.
“As the UN decade of ecosystem restoration gets underway, the ecological need and political appetite for relocations of large carnivores has never been greater, and they have the potential to contribute more now than ever before to biodiversity conservation. By scrutinising the most geographically comprehensive sample of relocated large carnivores to date, our study makes plain to conservationists and policy makers the urgency of improving rewilding efforts.”
Professor David Macdonald, University of Oxford’s WildCRU63
“There seems a tacit assumption that if grizzlies survive in Canada and Alaska, that is good enough. It is not good enough for me… Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is like relegating happiness to heaven; one might never get there”
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
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