People living in the East Midlands – the market town of Retford in Nottinghamshire and the village of Repton in Derbyshire, in particular – should be on the look-out for new residents in the coming year or two.
Their new near-neighbours will stand anywhere between 1.5 and 2 metres high at the shoulder, and males will possess unmistakeable palmate antlers that span more than 2 metres as well.
In short, elk (or moose as they are called in North America) could be moving in down the road.
- British deer guide: how to identify them
- Enormous ocean giants: discover 10 of the UK’s largest sea animals
Why bring elk back to the UK?
Elk are native to the British Isles, though they went extinct, probably as a result of hunting and habitat loss, some 3,000 years ago. In Europe, they are found over large parts of Scandinavia and Russia, and are slowly recolonising areas as far west as the Poland-German border.
Now, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trusts are investigating whether elk would be an appropriate species to release into two large, fenced enclosures where they have previously reintroduced beavers. One of those reserves is Willington Wetlands between Derby and Burton-on-Trent, the other the Idle Valley to the east of Sheffield.
- Britain's lost beasts: when did the moose, wolf and bear go extinct in UK?
- Government approves beaver releases centuries after the rodents became extinct
According to Rachel Bennett, deputy director of wilder landscapes at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, elk are unique among deer in being semi-aquatic and they are also ecosystem engineers, which means they have the ability to have transformative, lasting impacts on habitats.
In woodlands and wetlands, they act as seed dispersers and are also responsible for bioturbation – essentially, churning up sediments in lakes and rivers and releasing nutrients. They also open up glades in woodlands by feeding on vegetation, which allows sunlight in and different species of plants to flourish.
Funding for the work to assess whether elk would be a suitable species to bring back to Britain is being provided by the conservation group Rewilding Britain. "Elk help repair ecosystems and shape wild places in ways that benefit wildlife, people and the climate,” says its chief executive Rebecca Wrigley.
Wetlands play an important role in reducing flooding in towns and cities by holding onto water that would otherwise be washed downstream. They are also significant storers of carbon, and so can help to slow down climate change.
There’s still a long way to go before the green light is given to bringing elk back to Britain – in the long run, says Bennett, they would love to see them not only released into the two target reserves, but into suitable unfenced reserves where they could provide even greater benefits for the broader landscape.
Main image: Eurasian elk. Credit: Getty
More wildlife stories from around the UK
- The story of the Sycamore Gap tree – and what happened after it was felled
- "Remarkable" nest cam footage shows peregrine falcon chick eating first meal at Norwich Cathedral
- What's the most common mammal in Britain? It outnumbers humans but you've probably never seen one
- Beaver fart caught on night cam in Cornwall
