Moose in the Glen Natural World

The Highlands of Scotland have witnessed many upheavals.

But they've seen nothing

like what's happening in the glens north of Inverness.

Here, one man is trying to realise a big idea.

Paul Lister is trying to bring back

wild animals that were once common in Scotland.

Mammals such as moose, wolves and bears

that were wiped out centuries ago.

His plans have produced howls of derision as well as enthusiastic support.

Is he a nutcase or will he be hailed as a modern-day Monarch of the Glen?

There are huge obstacles to overcome, but one thing is sure -

Paul Lister is prepared to do whatever it takes to turn his patch of Scotland wild again.

The Highlands of Scotland look like the very essence of wildness -

primeval and untouched.

But these solitary trees

are all that remain of a very different landscape.

Centuries ago, these hills were cloaked

in forests of Caledonian pine, but they've been stripped bare.

With the timber gone, sheep took over the hills.

They grazed out many of the fragile native plants,

turning a once diverse landscape into a soggy desert.

Even the heather is nothing but a glorified weed.

It's hard to make a living here.

Crofters have mostly gone, and the land is carved up

between a number of large estates,

these days devoted to hunting, shooting and fishing.

It may look wild, but in fact, this landscape is heavily managed

for the benefit of just three commercially prized animals -

salmon, grouse and red deer.

People think Scotland, or the Highlands in particular, are a beautiful place, beautiful scenery,

and they're right, it does look great.

But if you actually know something about the history,

you'll realise just how much devastation has taken place

over the centuries.

There is a tantalising hint of what Scotland looked like 300 years ago

in the remaining forests of northern and eastern Europe.

Here, it's also possible to glimpse the animals that once lived in the Highlands,

creatures which either died out once the trees were cut down or were hunted out.

It's almost impossible to imagine moose in a glen,

but long ago they would have been

as much a part of the Scottish uplands as brown bears.

Each animal, up to the top predator, would have played a vital role

in keeping the woodland balanced and healthy.

It was on a visit to Eastern Europe

that businessman Paul Lister saw Scotland's potential.

But it wasn't until 2003 that his fledgling idea could take off.

Overnight, his fortunes changed,

as he came into control of millions of pounds made by his father,

the founder of the MFI flat-pack empire.

Lister bought a 23,000-acre estate north of Inverness,

where he set about challenging the centuries-old monopoly of land management.

His base is the Alladale Lodge at the eastern end of his land.

Like the surrounding sporting estates,

there's grouse, thousands of red deer

and the rivers are rich in salmon.

But along the two glens which stretch west from the lodge,

there is very little else.

Paul wants to use his fortune to create a wilderness reserve,

plant trees to join up the fragmented woodland

and populate the two glens with moose, lynx, bear and wolf,

creatures that were once common here.

He thinks people would pay to come and see this restoration process happen

and wants to prove that a rich and self-sustaining mix of native wildlife

can make more money and provide more jobs than hunting and fishing.

The area I'm looking at here is one of our richest parts of the reserve,

and it just needs to have back

the animals that were once living here hundreds of years ago

to really make the place come alive.

Trying to bring back Scotland's lost riches is not a new idea.

For many decades, conservationists have discussed

re-wilding parts of the Highlands, and a recent European directive

encourages governments to do just this.

Scotland has successfully reintroduced birds such as red kite and the sea eagle,

but plans to bring back mammals have foundered,

either because there isn't enough continuous forest

to support these creatures, or because local people have objected.

Although other European countries

have successfully re-introduced mammals such as beaver, Scotland is lagging behind.

Re-wilding has proved to be so complicated,

it's not surprising many people look at Lister's ambitious plans

with a mixture of admiration and disbelief.

Well, I started by thinking he was a nutcase.

But...I have to admire him for having a go.

I mean, the SAS motto.

He's put his purse

where his mouth is and he is trying,

and I admire that immensely.

Paul is a furniture salesman not an ecologist,

so he's buying in the best advice.

At Alladale, there is the potential

to do something radical, useful, important and well founded.

The thought that there would be an owner of a Highland estate

who is prepared to make the top priority of that estate

the biodiversity gain and all that flows from it - the revenue generation and so forth -

is quite wonderful, and we should rejoice in that.

Paul's impatient to get the project off the ground,

so as well as world-class expertise, he's found what he believes is the perfect blueprint for Alladale.

There's nothing unique about what I'm proposing at Alladale.

There's nothing unique.

It's literally a plagiarisation of a success story from South Africa.

Like the Highlands of Scotland, Shamwari Game Reserve was once overgrazed and impoverished land.

The driving force behind its restoration is businessman Adrian Gardiner.

10, 15 years ago, where we're driving now was farmland.

This was all red soil, abused,

overgrazed, degraded,

absolutely ravaged.

Over the years, successfully,

we've created a whole ecosystem here,

from a dung beetle to the elephant,

so we've put back the rightful owners to this land.

What's impressed Paul is that the animals have done all the hard work.

To a large extent, we've let nature repair itself.

If you put the right animals on this land,

that helps repair it. That's nature.

The similarities between what we're trying to do

are actually closer than you think.

The right animals in their original setting

will go a long way to restoring the vegetation at Alladale, too.

But at the start, they would have to be heavily managed.

Paul and his rangers will have to learn how to monitor,

dart and move grazers to help the restoration process along.

This is a very popular dart gun,

so you'll most probably use this dart system at Alladale.

-So, the dart is in there.

-Oh, yes.

-Quite simple.

-Yeah, very.

OK, if you get a nice view of the rhino...

The one at the back now. Back left.

Today, they are going to dart a young rhino so they can clip an identifying mark on her ear.

In a few years' time, Paul could be darting moose or bear at Alladale.

On the shoulder if you get...

Perfect. And it went in.

'Tony, they've just gone into the open now.'

So far so good. Very slick operation.

Yeah, they've gone into the middle of a nice big open area.

They only have a short time before the rhino is conscious again.

The vet makes a painless notch in her ear and then injects a stimulant to bring the rhino round.

No, it's fine.

Wow. He was up quick.

In every healthy ecosystem, grazers are only part of the story.

Without predators, the grazers would overpopulate the reserve and eat out the vegetation all over again.

Shamwari needs big cats

just as Alladale needs wolves, lynx and bear.

People have a long-held mistrust of predators, so many locals

were outraged when Gardiner welcomed lions and hyenas back.

My neighbours here were absolutely up in arms.

I can remember going to a meeting where one of the neighbours stood up

and he said to me, "My grandfather shot the last brown hyena here."

I said, "Well, I'm going to bring it back."

To keep the neighbours happy and to protect his precious animals,

Gardiner has built a fence around his 60,000 acres.

Paul will do the same at Alladale but, even so,

Gardiner thinks he will face a lot of resistance to his plans.

His challenges are going to be more than ours were.

We had a lot of neighbours who didn't want to accept what we were gonna do, and there were struggles.

But all struggles are worth fighting for.

I really hope that I will see the bear and the wolf back.

Oh, you will, you will!

For sure!

Paul is convinced the Shamwari model will work in the Highlands.

People say to me, "We're living in another part of the world."

Yes, there are different parameters,

but it's the same principle of taking over land

which has been ravaged by man and investing in it

and bringing back the species that belong there.

Paul is impatient to see wolves and bear on his reserve

but, like Shamwari, he needs to start with the basics.

He has native grazers, but red deer are the very core of the problem.

Scotland has way too many of them.

Even Scottish Natural Heritage agrees that native trees and plants

don't stand a chance while deer numbers remain so high.

In any other setting, they'd be called a pest.

With no native predators to control them, red deer numbers have increased steadily for decades.

Despite a threefold increase in culling since the 1970s, deer numbers are still on the rise.

In the interests of natural regeneration,

Alladale has halved its deer population over ten years.

The process of lowering numbers goes on every year.

Throughout the season, they cull the lesser-valued hinds.

The challenge is to get close enough for a shot.

I'm not some bloodthirsty killer, like.

It's a job that we have to do and that's it, you know?

Just get on with it.

Deer culling is something Innes and David have always had to do.

But now they feel there's a goal at the end of it.

-It's quite a good plan, you know.

-If we get the acreage,

this thing can work and create a lot more employment,

and it would be quite a unique concept, you know?

We're watching the project develop, you know? We're making it happen.

So bring it on.

Once the deer are under control,

the 80,000 saplings which Paul has planted in the valley bottoms will have a chance of reaching maturity.

Paul already has some stands

of old-growth Caledonian pine on the reserve.

But to provide food and cover for forest animals, he needs more.

Pines need very specific growing conditions,

so Paul has turned to a very specific animal.

The arrival of a group of boar means his dream of regenerating

this patch of the Highlands has already begun.

Boars are walking rotavators.

As they root around, they break up the blanket of heather and bracken,

turn over the soil and create a perfect seedbed for pine kernels.

-Where's the big fellow?

-Here he is.

400 years ago, boar were common in Scotland.

He is big, isn't he?

This is the first time anyone has studied what their return would do to the landscape.

Paul's estate manager, Hugh Fullerton-Smith,

is the man in charge of the operation.

When this opportunity arose, it kind of really intrigued me that somebody

could be trying to set up a genuine wilderness reserve in the UK.

It's quite powerful stuff, really, this whole re-wilding concept,

and I think it's long overdue,

from what I've seen in 12 months. It's perfect.

And after a while, I think you suddenly realise

that you're quite privileged to be here.

There's probably 100 years' work here.

Paul knows re-wilding takes time.

But he's also a businessman who needs results.

He wants to fast-forward to the next animal on his wish list -

moose, or European elk, as they are officially known.

Unlike red deer, these eight-foot giants won't decimate the ground vegetation.

They browse on willows and birch.

They've been absent from Scotland for over 2,000 years.

But Paul thinks that if he had some at Alladale, they would start drawing the public in.

But shopping for them is harder than he thought.

I've found moose, but the Swedish government

have banned the capture of wild moose, so we've had to go to parks.

But they're terribly expensive.

I think with all the vet testing

and all the clearances to import them into Scotland,

it will be about £17,000 for four animals.

Paul decides to get on a plane and look for some himself.

He wants young moose that will be able to grow up as wild as possible.

At a moose breeder's, he tracks down two females who are about to give birth.

Helga, Scottish visitors!

Er, English visitor.

English? Oh, sorry!

British visitor.

They're amazing, aren't they? I've never been this close to a moose.

Here comes the boss. She is called Landa.

This one here?

She even beats up the bull if she has to,

she just presses down the head and then she knees them.

-Can you get in there with them?

-We will go in, everyone.

-They are very, very tame.

-We're gonna go in there?

-Yes, of course.

-This is the bigger bull.

-They make horses look small.

-Look at that!

-There you go.

There you go. You like that one, boy.

I need two females and a male. Young ones.

Well, let's have a contact and see what happens when their babies come.

Paul calls Alladale with the good news.

I think I'd better do a deal with him.

Anyway, this might just be the niche.

He's got a home for two of the babies,

but not the other three or four.

Erm, and I suspect we just need three at the most.

Moose from Sweden would be a crowd puller.

But Paul needs a mix of animals on the reserve.

Every animal has its part to play, and the more animals

we bring back to Alladale, the less we'll have to manage things,

the less we'll have to go round planting trees and shooting deer

and we can let animals play their part.

Encouraging small animals back to Alladale is as important as the large ones.

Small birds and mammals help to distribute seeds

and would provide food for carnivores such as lynx and eagles.

But the animal that's key to restoring the balance of the Highlands is the wolf.

It's also the animal with the biggest reputation.

Even a huge national park like Yellowstone in the US

courted controversy when they brought this particular carnivore back.

Oh, it was very heated. I've had death threats, and I think people on the other side did too, probably.

So it's a very emotional issue, very polarised.

I've had hundreds of guys come up to me at meetings and tell me,

"My dad, my grandad killed the last wolf in this valley,

"this river system, this county, this state." They're very proud of that.

And so, emotionally, it's a big deal out West,

where the last wolves were killed only 70 or 80 years ago.

For many people, that's not long enough to begin to love an animal

that was once so hated.

Fear of wolves runs deep,

but it's a fear that's unfounded.

Wolves have attacked people a few times in North America,

but in the past 400 years,

a wild wolf has never killed a person in North America.

Some day it might happen, but of all the things you have to worry about,

wolves are probably just below ground squirrels.

Wolves are not a serious threat to people.

What's more, wolves are useful.

They've done a sterling job in Yellowstone of keeping destructive grazing animals in check,

so much so that top British scientists have studied

whether wolves could do the same for the spiralling number of Highland deer.

The science we need to know is

what are the likely consequences if we take a species like a wolf

and reintroduce it into parts of Scotland?

Our predictions were that, eventually, after about 60 years,

deer numbers would come down to probably somewhere between a quarter or a third on where they are now

and the wolf population would plateau in the Highlands

at somewhere between 300-500 wolves.

Eventually, predator and prey find a natural balance,

and that can only be good for the whole landscape.

Paul's ideas are based on sound science,

but there haven't been wolves in Britain since the 1740s,

and the mere mention of them creates panic.

Paul thinks the media are just scaremongering.

I was in Sweden the other week. There are 300 or 400 wolves.

You don't read horror stories of people being eaten by wolves and bears in Europe.

It's just nonsense, and it's about time people woke up to that fact.

It's about time stories like Little Red Riding Hood were put into context

and people understood that wolves are absolutely terrified of man.

Hill farmers still worry that their livestock might be at risk.

To allay local concerns, Lister has always made it clear

that he intends to build a fence around his entire property.

The scare stories are a constant frustration.

It is a misrepresentation to imagine

that creating a large, fenced, park-like wilderness area

is the same thing as liberating, unfenced, these animals

into the freedom of the countryside.

I've seen press coverage which has suggested a confusion

between those two, which is a pretty silly confusion.

I mean, most people can understand "fence".

There's already a 500-acre enclosure for the boar,

and there are plenty of safety measures to protect people from what's inside.

We've got a dangerous wild animal licence now,

so it's our job to protect the public from these animals

and to protect the animals from the public, as well!

But Hugh finds himself in a legal paradox.

The laws protecting the public are at odds with the laws guaranteeing public access in Scotland.

Something really strange has happened

from the same office that issued the dangerous wild animals licence.

The Highland Access Officer now insists that the public can have access to this enclosure.

So we've got a pretty strange thing going on here.

Worryingly, the legal farce surrounding the pig pen

has huge implications for the whole project.

The 50-mile fence which Paul had planned to build around Alladale,

three metres high, specially designed and costing £2 million,

would effectively seal off his estate from the rest of the Highlands.

This has enraged people who fought for one of the very first Acts of the new Scottish Parliament -

an enforceable right to roam.

Ramblers and climbers aren't up in arms over the wolves.

It's the fence.

To keep these animals in place, if you like,

he wants to build a fence, electrified,

to create a massive enclosure

for these animals.

Now, one, that's not re-wilding,

that's creating a zoo. And two,

People like myself and many, many others have fought for generations

for this Land Reform Act, the legislation that we now have in Scotland.

And for somebody to helicopter into an area like Alladale and say,

"I'm gonna build this great big fence and to hell with your Land Reform Act, I don't care about your access,

"I want to keep people out and my animals in."

That attitude I find morally repugnant.

The fence has become very divisive.

What Paul thought would be the solution

to people's fear of wild animals is becoming his biggest problem.

There are some people who don't want to see any fences,

and there are other people who don't want a fence

because they don't want to be stopped walking on that side.

I worry that because of the access legislation,

it may be impossible

to do this experiment, and I would be very sad about that.

I think that we need places for nature.

I don't see why humans have to go everywhere.

Even though Alladale is becoming embroiled in access issues,

they still have to get on with managing the animals that are already penned up here.

At least Hugh is making progress with the boar.

Yesterday, we put radio tracking collars on seven of the boar.

It's really going along nicely, so the pigs are going really well.

The radio collars will help Chris, who's in charge of the boar research, to work out

how much land each pig needs.

This becomes particularly important when, in early summer,

the enclosure welcomes new arrivals.

These are the first animals to be born at Alladale and the first that will be brought up in the wild.

Now that the boar seem well established,

it's time for Hugh to organise the next stage of the project.

We're definitely going ahead with an import of elk on September 15th.

Just going to bring a bull and two young females.

So that's pretty exciting.

The re-wilding will happen here, no doubt about that.

It's just the timing of us establishing this big reserve,

because the complexities of doing it have probably escaped Paul a little.

Paul has overlooked a fundamental issue.

In the eyes of the law, a fence around his reserve

would change the nature of the Alladale project.

We in Scottish Natural Heritage are remitted and interested in wildlife when it's in the wild.

When you put a fence around an area,

technically and legally, it's not then in the wild.

I think the development at Alladale would need then to be covered by the zoo legislation.

As I understand it, there would be issues about animal welfare,

the survival and wellbeing of individual animals

as part of what happens inside this enclosed area.

Alladale is huge but, if it's classed as a zoo,

it would then be illegal to put a predator and its prey in the same enclosed space.

And THIS would completely undermine Paul's grand plan.

If the Highlands are to be properly restored, he thinks it's vital for all the animals to live together.

It's the wolves that will keep the deer away from the valley bottoms,

where the rivers are, where we need vegetation.

We don't have that any more up here.

It's important spawning grounds for the salmon.

For the whole cycle of life, it's very important to have as many

of the creatures back that were once here.

Although this is encouraged by EU legislation,

national laws are threatening to stop his ambitious re-wilding scheme in its tracks.

There's a clash of legislation here.

Article 22 of the EU Habitats Directive

encourages people to go through species and habitat restoration,

That means that you have an ambition to get wolves and bear and lynx back into Scotland.

The Zoo Act basically prevents that happening

by saying you cannot have predator and prey in the same enclosure,

which basically flies in the face of this whole proposal.

We have managed to surround ourselves in so much red tape

with regard to things that you can and cannot do.

We're not a zoo, we're not a Longleat, we're not a private collection of animals. What are we?

Well, we are a wilderness reserve.

We are like a nature reserve with a fence around it.

So there isn't a box for us.

Perhaps the only way forward is to challenge the legislation

and make his reserve much, much larger.

No-one quite knows how big it should be, but everyone agrees that its current size is too limiting.

It's undoubtedly too small.

The original thought was it needed 50,000 acres.

If you had less than 50,000 acres,

then you would say that the...

deer are too much at a disadvantage

against fence lines for the wolves.

So you can't do that.

It has to be big.

Even the trial boar enclosure may be too small.

The pigs are doing a great job breaking up the bracken and heather,

but the roots of one of the old-growth pine trees

have been damaged in the process,

proof that there's still lots to learn

about even the basics of Highland restoration.

In August, there's an unexpected setback.

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth has been confirmed in England,

and the Government, nervous of an epidemic, has put a blanket ban

on all movements of livestock.

I'll call the Swedish Trades Council.

Hugh has to cancel the import of the moose.

They're going to really stick this one out,

cos they got so much egg on their face last time letting any movements take place at all.

They're absolutely paranoid.

Good old foot-and-mouth has erupted again.

Looks like the second case will be confirmed today.

There's no real ban on importing stock, you just can't move them once they get to England.

So we have to wait for the ban to be lifted before we can begin the import.

Nothing like Alladale has been attempted in Britain before,

so right from the start, Paul's had to come to terms with setbacks as well as missed opportunities.

At the very beginning, he had a chance to buy the next-door estate.

That was more money, but my view is,

if you're very wealthy and you buy an estate, you're not losing money.

You can always sell it again sometime.

If that other estate had been bought then, that would have made it easier.

Paul now has to either wait for adjoining land to come on the market

or encourage his neighbours, who all run sporting estates,

to come on board.

A group of Highland estates with the same vision would create enough space for re-wilding.

But there's a lot of persuading to do.

I wouldn't want the fences.

It's not possible without the fences.

But I wouldn't want it here.

But I admire him for having a go.

My own opinion is it needs nearer a

quarter-million acres than 25,000,

and then I think he might be getting somewhere.

There are some problems, not least with the fencing...

..both in extremely bad weather in the winter,

and also on the human side,

with the antis and vandals cutting in.

And then, if you have a lot of wolves or bears escape, well, erm,

it would make life interesting!

You know, before he came along,

there was just the traditional sporting estate and the crofters.

To keep people in the Highlands,

you've got to keep trying new things.

As Jonny has said, good on you for having a go.

It's creating a lot of jobs, and it might be right.

Like a lot of people who have a vision, it's never simple, is it?

How many people have had ideas that have really required a lot of energy,

effort, communication and support?

What has to happen is that people have to start to appreciate

and believe and trust

in what we're trying to achieve.

By September, with the moose importation still on hold,

Paul flies to the other side of the world

for a much-needed dose of inspiration and support.

This is part of the biggest re-wilding project on the planet,

100 times larger than Alladale.

Just like the Highlands, this part of Argentina was once in a mess,

former cattle ranches that were badly overgrazed.

Paul has come to see Kris and Doug Tompkins, who have sunk their time, energy and considerable fortune

into allowing large areas within Argentina and Chile to regenerate.

The first in a long line of native species they hope to reintroduce is the giant anteater.

We have a whole quarantine centre

that we've built on the other side of the wetlands.

Now we have a male in this pen and a female in the other one.

In three weeks' time, we're gonna let them go -

they'll be released as a pair.

Our goal was to release seven this year. So it's slow going, you know?

You'd love to release 50, but this is the first formal reintroduction

of a species in Argentina,

so we wanted to act as a model

for this kind of work for the future.

Like Paul, the Tompkins have had to learn by trial and error.

They've had setbacks, but they've soldiered on, firm in the belief

that turning the land wild is the best thing to do.

Look at this southern screamer with its chicks.

I think people tend to protect those things they love

and the things that are meaningful to them,

and that, in this case, is wildness for us.

Doug and Kris made their money from the outdoor-clothing companies

Esprit, Patagonia and North Face.

It allowed them to buy 2.2 million acres of degraded land.

But once the re-wilding is complete,

they intend to gift large areas of land back to the government so that they can be run as national parks.

If you're in conservation work, it's an endless job.

It'll never be finished.

You would like to live for ever and keep doing it cos it's fascinating

and very satisfying,

especially restoration work, which we do a lot of,

damaged landscapes.

I think you have to get possessive.

Paul maybe is possessed by this too,

that wildness is the thing to go for.

It's inspirational, really, for me to come down here and meet the Tompkins.

What they're doing is great.

It's places like this that I get inspiration from.

But the real challenge now is to get more neighbours and landowners

and acquire more land and ultimately get the large carnivores back.

That's the real challenge - to get the land, and I'm hopeful.

In the autumn, Paul hears rumours that a neighbouring estate of 37,000 acres is up for sale.

If he can secure a deal,

he would have enough land to realise his dreams.

There's more good news in November.

The two young moose are finally on their way from Sweden.

We planned to import these animals in September.

Along came foot-and-mouth disease, which put a spanner in the works,

followed hot on the heels by bluetongue.

That meant that we couldn't come into the port that we chose, near Grimsby, and so we've been waiting

for them to remove the restrictions,

which they haven't done on the bluetongue.

So we managed to solve everything by chartering a plane in Inverness,

and we can fly direct to Umea

and straight back to Inverness, which is just going to be amazing.

Beautiful, aren't they?

Moose have been absent from the Highlands for over 2,000 years.

But these two appear to fit right back in.

Every animal plays a part, and it's just like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Having two elk back, it's just another piece back in the jigsaw.

For the time being, they're in an enclosure but, eventually, they'll have the run of the reserve.

It's taken four years and millions of pounds

just to get boar and moose back onto his land.

Many have criticised Paul's approach, but he's the only person

bold enough to take on the problems,

the doubters and the red tape.

And despite all the odds, he remains determined to create

the first wilderness reserve in Britain.

Maybe it takes a maverick to move the boundaries

and wake people up to the urgency and importance of re-wilding.

I believe we should encourage the likes of Paul Lister.

What he's trying to do is ambitious.

I don't know whether it will succeed,

but I think it contributes substantially to the debate.

So if people are trying to re-wild areas within an enclosed area

and we collect scientific information about the way the ecosystem changes,

that's a very valuable contribution to this debate about the use of our countryside

and about ways in which we can help conserve some of these species.

However, there are many people who still think Paul is misguided.

Paul has seen what's happened in Africa.

He's thought this could happen in Scotland. I would say it can't.

Although I fully understand the view that says this simply can't happen,

it's too big an ask, I don't believe it.

There's always going to be people out there that go, "This isn't gonna work.

"He's a crackpot."

But as long as the majority of people can see what we're trying to achieve,

then it will happen. Totally, it will happen.