Paul Lister plans to turn the clock back by 1000 years on his 23,000 acre estate in the north of Inverness by populating the land with animals which have since become extinct in Britain. Reintroducing wolves to Scotland once again, he hopes, will help to control the growing numbers of destructive red deer on his land.

Wolves were hunted to extinction in England by 1500 and the last record of a wolf in Scotland was in 1743. The main threats to their survival are hunting, rabies and starvation, but experts claim the predators would have a good chance of survival if re-released into the UK.