Reintroducing wolves to Scottish Highlands

[Blobbenstein]

Reintroducing wild wolves to the Scottish Highlands could have a positive impact on local conservation, says new research published today. The study suggests that the return of wolves, which were eradicated from the Scottish landscape in 1769, would benefit the local economy and could aid efforts to reforest the highlands and increase bird biodiversity in the region

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_31-1-2007-9-45-40?newsid=4693


I loved the film "Company of Wolves"

[Kula]

It doesn't take a genius to see that this has 'bad idea' written all over it. All it will take is a sinlge attack on a human by a Wolf, and the public will be up in arms about this. As for the Deers; any population will eventually reach a certain level and will balance itself out. We don't need to introduce Wolves for that.

[berrykat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6310211.stm I think this would be awesome if they do it right. I am very pro-wolf.

[Ice_Storm]

"Farmers suffer emotional as well as financial losses when they lose stock, as was demonstrated during the foot-and-mouth outbreak."

I doubt farmers suffer emotionally when they lose stock, they are bred to be slaughtered! They wouldn't be in that business if they actually cared for the animals. What a hypocrite.


About Wolves being re-introduced. Hmm i'm not so sure, i'd need more information on population numbers etc before i could think it was ok.

[SuperChicken]

Do the farmers suffer emotionally because they can no longer profit from those animals? They certainly aren't suffering because they want only the best for their critters.

I am all in favor of wolf re-introduction if it is well planned out and implemented. They are such a valuable part of a natural ecosystem!

[Black Heart]

... As for the Deers; any population will eventually reach a certain level and will balance itself out...
That isn't allowed to happen at the moment: as the article says, they are culled by the landowners. Many people say that not culling the animals is cruel as it forces them to compete for a finite food supply so the whole herd becomes malnourished. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

[gas4]

"Farmers suffer emotional as well as financial losses when they lose stock, as was demonstrated during the foot-and-mouth outbreak."


I'll agree that this seems hypocritical, but I can tell you that some farmers do put considerable emotional investment into the welfare of their animals, and are seriously affected when animals under their care are injured or sick. Some farmers are farmers because they enjoy caring for animals, they just haven't come to the realisation that farm animals are designed for anything other than human exploitation in the long term.

[gas4]

I think a reintroduction of wolves would be a good idea only if there was a good way to prevent them from attacking sheep. After all, which is the easier meal, a sheep or a deer?

[Pirate Ferret]

Im not sure this is a good idea.... surely the environment is used to wolves not being there any more.

[berrykat]

If it happens it has to be well thought out.

[gas4]

Perhaps they could build a wolf proof fence which divided farm land from the land where they wanted to reintroduce the wolves.
In NZ there are specific places that have had huge fences built around them for the purpose of the restoration of native wildlife. They've cleared these areas of introduced predators and have started releasing native wildlife back into them. The fences cost a s**tload though.

[nigel]

Yeah - this sounds pretty ass-backwards to me. First, the landscape of highland Scotland now is far different from the heavily wooded Scotland of the mid 18th century and earlier. The wolves will be competing with each other for the cover of forest, and god knows what implication that would have on how they interact with human and sheep populations, not to mention other species who are more "balanced" with the current state of affairs.

If they want to cull the deer populations, the safest, surest and more humane way of doing so is through shooting them. Besides, I seriously doubt that any wolf would bother to stalk, chase and bring down a deer when its other option is to run in the general direction of a fold of sheep, at whimsy, any time it wants a snack.