Hulda and Hercules now roam a bracken and heather-carpeted 450-acre (180-hectare) enclosure in the Alladale wilderness reserve, alongside newly released wild boar.

His aim is both to restore a section of the deforested and depopulated highlands to its former glory by releasing once native species into his vast Alladale wilderness reserve, and to turn a profit by charging people to visit.

"Alladale is about a restoration project, said Lister, 49, the son of the founder of UK furniture retailer MFI. "It's not about conservation -- we haven't got a lot to conserve."

Only around 1 percent of Scotland's native pinewoods remain, while many other habitats have been degraded or lost due to changes in climate and farming and forestry over the last 5,000 years or so, according to conservation charity Trees for Life.

Lister believes if bears and wolves were introduced, business at his luxury eco-resort would increase tenfold, thereby creating 100 jobs on the estate, generating 7 million pounds a year and revitalising the local economy.

"I am not just some crazed wolf man," he told Reuters.

Farmers, ramblers and neighbouring landowners remain sceptical -- and the reintroduction of wolves would have many complex consequences. But conservationists and naturalists are fascinated by the experiment, which is costing Lister around 800,000 pounds a year in capital expenditure and making a further 100,000 pounds trading loss.

Scientists from Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit are carrying out a three-year project on the reserve, trying to monitor the impact of the boars and moose on bracken and new seedbeds for trees.

WOLF DEBATE AND LEGEND

"What he's doing is almost like a scientific experiment -- privately funded so it is no cost to the taxpayer -- to see what would happen if we re-wilded and restored parts of the old Caledonian forest in Scotland," said Richard Morley of the Wolves and Humans Foundation.

Even if Lister is not able to see all his plans through, he has ignited a public debate about the restoration of the Scottish Highlands and the reintroduction of wolves.

An academic report published last year lent credibility to Lister's plan: scientists from Norway and from Imperial College London found that wolves would help control the deer population, reducing the need for expensive culling and preventing overgrazing and the trampling of saplings.

Morley said interest in wolf reintroduction had surged since the 1960s, as people became more concerned about the environment and saw conservation efforts abroad.

"There is a feeling that we should demonstrate that we have changed and we can now live with an animal that was exterminated in the British Isles," he said.

Wolves were once common in Britain, but as a large predator and threat to livestock, were steadily exterminated from south to north, with the last wolves said to have perished in the Scottish Highlands in the mid-18th century.

The wolf is still tied up with Highlands folklore, said Iain Ross, a spokesman for the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the government body in charge of conservation and restoration.

"There is a historical character called the Wolf of Badenoch who was a highland clan chieftain who was a raider, a rampager. And although it is gone from living memory, there are lots of songs and poetry which talk about the wolf," he said.

Ross said there were many people making a vocal case for the reintroduction of wolves but it was not a priority for the SNH, whose many other projects underway include a proposed reintroduction of the beaver.