About Tooth & Claw

For many people, predators are symbolic of a wildness we once knew, they are key to the ecological integrity of our countryside. For others, predators represent competition for our game interests, they’re an inconvenient drain on resources and compromise our leisure pursuits.

Very few of us with an interest in the countryside remain indifferent about predators. Our opinions are influenced by myth, culture, politics and economics. Emotion too plays its role and the fact that predators kill other animals to survive can provoke extreme reactions in us.

So how do our attitudes towards these charismatic creatures reflect our changing relationship with nature as a whole? This is the question that Tooth & Claw sets out to answer.

Managing predators is really about managing people’s perceptions – what they believe and what they value in their lives. We are all affected by predators whether we realise it or not – they create processes which shape the landscape we live in. But when predators create problems, solutions can be hard to find and the debate often ignores biological fact, relying instead on cultural preconceptions about what the countryside should look like and who should control it. This almost tribal approach to predator opinion, is what Tooth & claw seeks to better inform.

Ultimately Tooth & Claw asks questions of ourselves: our fears, our prejudices, our inconsistencies. We are reminded of our place in nature - as the most powerful predator of all.

Watch the Tooth & Claw author video

• An insight into Tooth & Claw from the project authors Peter Cairns and Mark Hamblin