{"id":482037,"date":"2026-06-04T03:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482037\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T03:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:59:15","slug":"why-bringing-back-wolves-could-improve-human-safety-on-the-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482037\/","title":{"rendered":"Why bringing back wolves could improve ‘human safety on the roads’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reintroducing wolves into Ireland could help improve road safety by controlling the deer population, an environmentalist has argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Road Safety Authority has noted that the number of deer related collisions has risen in recent years, with 41 casualty collisions involving deer recorded between 2019 and 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was also informed of 1,382 collisions with deer in which there was no injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In recent years, tens of thousands of deer have been culled on an annual basis, in a bid to control their numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, on The Claire Byrne Show<\/a>, Wild Ireland conservation park founder Killian McLaughlin questioned a cull-led approach to managing the deer population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember 55,000 deer were killed [in 2022],\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has increased, believe it or not, to 78,000 deer killed in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGo right back to when the cull started in 1995, there were 5,000 deer culled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, something’s telling me culling’s not the answer here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A A red deer at Killarney National Park in County Kerry. Picture by: Robertharding \/ Alamy.<\/p>\n

Mr McLaughlin continued that he believes \u201cnature can balance itself\u201d, but that Ireland currently lacks an apex predator that preys on deer and controls their population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both bears and wolves were driven to extinction in Ireland, but now enjoy protected status in European Union countries where they have survived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been trying to control nature for years, not just in Ireland, but across the globe and it has been totally and utterly a disaster,\u201d Mr McLaughlin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t necessarily have to be wolves; there are lynxes there as well, which they’re talking about reintroducing into Scotland because they’ve realised the cull doesn’t work either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, now they’re looking at rebalancing the ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EBNEF4 Wolves in Bavaria. Picture by: Alamy.com.<\/p>\n

Also on the programme, independent Donegal Councillor Michael McClafferty said he \u201cwouldn’t feel comfortable\u201d about the prospect of wolves returning to Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYour lynx, your cougar, your wolf, your bear, whatever, coming into danger, some child or whatever – this [could be] the kind of situation going on,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHave the wolves not killed people, or lynx possibly, in other countries?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr McLaughlin responded that wolves do not attack people and said collisions involving deer pose a bigger threat to people\u2019s safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael’s talking about human safety on the roads and everything else,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet’s look at what’s actually happening here; people are being injured in cars – they’re not being injured by wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main image: A split of wolves and a Garda at a road traffic crash. Pictures by: Alamy and RollingNews.ie.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reintroducing wolves into Ireland could help improve road safety by controlling the deer population, an environmentalist has argued.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-482037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}