The owner of a wildlife park in Co Donegal wants wolves reintroduced to the wild in Ireland to cope with the rising deer population across the country.
Killian McLaughlin, who founded and runs the Wild Ireland Wildlife Park in Inishowen, was speaking following a number of accidents involving deer and motorists.
An ambulance in the Dungloe area was damaged recently when it was struck by a deer and there have been several crashes in recent weeks involving deer.
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Mr McLaughlin believes that the reintroduction of the wolf as the 'apex predator' in Ireland will help control the increasing number of deer which he says is "at boiling point."
The former solicitor who now spends all his time running his wildlife park at Burnfoot says the reintroduction of wolves could not only prevent roadside accidents but also prevent the spread of Lyme Disease and TB as well as save the many hundreds of acres of crops damaged by deer each year.
He said: "I think it is something we at least have to look at as part of an eco-system restoration plan. We are only seeing now the damage which is being caused by deer which I believe is at boiling point.
"We are only now seeing the impact of deer in Ireland now that they do not have a predator. Something has to be done to stop the deforestation they are causing as well as the spread of Lyme disease, the damage to crops and of course the increasing number of road accidents we are seeing in places like Donegal," he said.
Mr McLaughlin said he is not simply talking about releasing a pack of wolves into the wild to allow a "free for all" but suggests a managed approach pointing to similar programmes across Europe.
The last recorded wild wolf to be killed in Ireland was in County Carlow in 1653 after Oliver Cromwell put a bounty on the heads of the animals in a bid to wipe them out.
