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If conservationists get their way, beavers will soon be building dams in Britain’s rivers and streams for the first time in 800 years. Stephen Harris, a zoologist at Bristol University and chairman of the Mammal Society, reckons we should go even further. He’d like to reintroduce all the large mammals our ancestors hunted to extinction, including wolf, lynx, elk, wild boar and bear. He says Britain’s ecology is unbalanced without them-and that they’d be good for tourism. Gail Vines finds out how someone brought up in London developed such a passion for wild animals.

Why would anyone want to bring…

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