Wolves!!!!!!! Bears!!!!!!!

[balgonie]

Wild campers and walkers beware.....

BBC News - Paul Lister plans to push ahead with Alladale wolves plan
www.bbc.co.uk/.../uk-scotland-highlands...
28 Oct 2013 - A landowner pledges to push ahead with plans to introduce bears and wolves to his estate in ...

www.bbc.co.uk/.../uk-scotland-highlands...

[balgonie]

Link appears not to be working :-/ but Google is

[Sgurr]

My main worry about this estate is over the section of the 2003 act which says that access laws do not apply where the public are charged for access on more than 90 days a year. I have just walked the Cambo Estate where the footpath has been diverted (OK) and in one part blocked by these folk. They would be fine to exclude access on ALL the bits where the public is charged.



There are plenty of places where one can still walk in this estate, but it does make me wonder what someone would do who was determined to exclude the public. I believe the boar have now gone from Alladale.

[Caberfeidh]

My main worry about this estate is over the section of the 2003 act which says that access laws do not apply where the public are charged for access on more than 90 days a year. I have just walked the Cambo Estate where the footpath has been diverted (OK) and in one part blocked by these folk. They would be fine to exclude access on ALL the bits where the public is charged.



There are plenty of places where one can still walk in this estate, but it does make me wonder what someone would do who was determined to exclude the public. I believe the boar have now gone from Alladale.

They're not even wild boar, they are Tamworths! Nice pigs though, I'd like to keep some.

[Sgurr]

Didn't say they were. Anyway l, wasn't going to walk through their enclosure when I saw the way they came galloping forward (probably just expected lunch).

[CharlesT]

Didn't say they were. Anyway l, wasn't going to walk through their enclosure when I saw the way they came galloping forward (probably just expected lunch).

Very wise. It could have been the rasher choice

[gammy leg walker]

Paul Lister is a wolf in sheeps clothing I would not trust this man as far as I could throw him.

[Gareth Harper]

exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[alexander1962]

Well about wolves you should not worry. In Germany they have now 25 wolfspacks. And they are moving westwards.
Bears are not found there however.
But other big animals like European bizon have been reintroduced there and in The Netherlands.
We have also plenty beavers here now, arround 500 to 600 in Holland. All these animals have a beneficial influence on the local ecosystems.
Especially beavers have had a dramatic influnce on the biodiversity in the Eiffel. By creating ponds in mountain streams and creating beavermeadows in what was ones a dark forest many other rare animals have make a comeback or at least an increase in the amount.

Well Germany and Holland are much denselier populated then Scotland. Here in Holland we have 17 million people!
So the possibilties for reintroducing animals ones exterminated by man there are much better!

Alexander

[alexander1962]

For more info see here.

taurosproject
wisenten in Nederland
wisent-welt

And maybe bears are an option in a remote part of Scotland. But probably you have to restore the origenal Caledonian Pineforest first.

Well in India people live with tigers and leopards as neighbours. So way not in Europe with bears and wolves. Especially when we ask people in poor countries not to hunt down there big animals...


Alexander

[Caberfeidh]

Well in India people live with tigers and leopards as neighbours.

In India people DIE with tigers and leopards as neighbours. Live/Die. There's a difference.

[Mancunian]

In Germany they have now 25 wolfspacks. And they are moving westwards.
Bears are not found there however.

I live in an area of Germany where wolves are present. And I don't like it. Mainly because I love to go for a walk in the dense forests of the Ore mountains or the Elbe sandstone mountains with my kids and knowing that wolves could be nearby gives me the creeps. You may argue that so far nothing has happened and no one was attacked and the public is in general not too concerned about the wolves but this will surely change after the first wolf-related accident.

[Border Reiver]

Trying to turn back the clock now would ruin a whole ecosystem that has developed/been created since the last wolf was killed in the early 1700's. This guy is not thinking of the long term effects, only his short term monetary gains.
Scotland isn't a big wilderness and the hills are farmed, if not for crops, for deer, sheep, cattle, game birds and fish in the rivers. Any reintroduction of wild carnivorous animals would have a vast impact on all these things.
High fences can easily be buried under feet of snow in the winter or knocked down by a falling tree or boulder falling down the hillside. I bet Mr.Lister's neighbours would be well pleased at the thought of wolves and bears escaping and getting in among their livestock. Imagine Lord (insert name) in the next estate having to explain to his rich clients "sorry, but there's no deer left for you to shoot, they've been eaten by wolves...and all the salmon have been eaten by bears".
There should be an open season for rogue land owners.

[pony23]

But don't forget, Yosemite had turned into an artificial habitat due to the removal of wolves and the resultant deer population explosion. The reintroduction of wolves enabled the natural ecosystem to start returning.

[EileanB]

I am not sure how much we should pick and chose which reintroductions we like and which we don't. We cheer on the sea eagles and beavers and object to the wolves. I think we also have to remember that the highlands are a place where people try to live and work, and would like to give their children a possibility of doing so, which immediately brings up the problem of jobs, which a lot of people would favour over a bit of conservation any day. (Not sure where the Alladale estate would stand on this) If we complain about this lovely area being ruined by the rich turning it into their personal playground (which I certainly do) then I think we also have to be wary of walkers or any other interest groups trying to do the same. The trouble is, finding the point of balance is not only practically impossible, but tends to please no-one and annoy everyone.