Rewilding Scotland

[dufc1980]

Although having said I can already picture the headlines "MONSTER BEAR MAULS CHILD TO DEATH!" and resulting public outcry and cull of the bears here.

Maybe not so sensible (for their sake, mainly) to reintroduce them into a land populated by people so prone to kneejerk reactions.

[Doink]

Currently there are beavers living wild around some areas of Scotland. There are some on the Tay which have been illeagally released or escaped from private collections. Their fate will be decided when the Beaver trial in Knapdale, Argyll, is finished.

I think we should bring back the Lynx with a view for later bringing back wolves. These animals would control deer numbers and restore the natural habitat. Deer currently have no natural predators and so are overgrazing the land and destroying precious habitats such as the ancient Caledonian Pine Forests. This has been seen in Yellowstone National Park where the wolves totally transformed the landscape when they were reintroduced and began to prey on the caribou. Lynx and/or wolves would bring deer numbers down in Scotland and drive them to the uplands and out of the valleys. These animals would also be excellent for Scottish wildlife tourism and potentially boost the economy in that sense.

I don't think bringing back bears would be a good idea as I think the threat they pose to humans is too high.

What do you think?

The threat to humans is the best reason to bring them back. Anyway, i saw Gordon Buchanan hanging out with bears on TV. They seemed good muckers.

[Doink]

Although having said I can already picture the headlines "MONSTER BEAR MAULS CHILD TO DEATH!" and resulting public outcry and cull of the bears here.

Maybe not so sensible (for their sake, mainly) to reintroduce them into a land populated by people so prone to kneejerk reactions.

The Star would lead with " Bears are c***s "

[bullywee]

Elephants would boost tourism.

[itzdrk]

went for everything except beavers

c***s

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Kill to eat as many as you wish of either; culling greys cos' ginger squirrels existed here first is still a ridiculous stance.

OK we get it

You don't like Gingers

[Hillonearth]

Pleasantly surprised by the results of this poll, I definitely thought I would be pretty much alone in wanting bears in addition to everything else.

Yeah, it seems the positives of doing so (wildlife tourism, controlling overpopulation etc.) would far outweigh the negatives (attacks on humans, issues with livestock etc.). Not many bears could populate the country anyway, given they generally require a large amount of land and food to sustain them, so numbers would be very low which should limit attacks on humans.

In addition to this bears could be carefully tracked and monitored within the country to further reduce the likelihood of attacks on humans.

Wild boar would be fantastic for hunting as well!

I voted for everything except bears - unfortunately, I don't think enough of their habitat still exists unfragmented to make a reintroduction viable.

Actually caught a brief glimpse of a wild boar in France once - we were travelling round Normandy and had stopped off at the big D-Day cemetery that was in Saving Private Ryan. There's paths down to the cliffs and we caught sight of one mooching about in one of the gullies off them.

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

Would have everything except bears. If you're going on a hike worrying about encountering a bear is simply a pain in the arse e.g. having to make loads of noise or bring bear spray etc. Having ran into a bear before, whilst quite exciting, it's not something I'd like to repeat.

[CityDave]

Can't wait to suddenly confront a black bear raking around in the wheelie bins at half 5 in the morning on my way to work.

[jmothecat]

That's an issue. In other countries where wolves live, farmers are given grants to compensate for the loss of livestock.

The question then is where would the money come from to do this? I reckon the income generated from resulting tourism could go some of the way for covering this.

For the greater good I think it needs to be done. If other countries can cope then there is no reason why we can't either.

How much difference will wolves make to tourism?

[1320Lichtie]

If we had bears and wolves roaming about I'd be nowhere near the countryside.

[CityDave]

If we had bears and wolves roaming about I'd be nowhere near the countryside.

Why worry it would be a perfectly natural death and you'd be doing your bit for conservation.

Aye people need to be educated if we have these large predators roaming about, specially the bit about not feeding them. I sure there is an estate in Sutherland that already have wolves. Wolves are supposed to have large territories to run around but generally stay clear of humans so shouldn't be a problem. Its bears and people that could be a problem and regardless of fences and natural barriers bears will find their way into cities and towns and cause problems just as they do in the U.S or Canada.

I'm alright with wolves but there can't be a lot of space for them left where they don't cross paths with humans, but no to bears. Not sure about lynx, we already have very few wildcats left and adding lynx into areas where there are wildcats might be a problem for them since lynx might kill any wildcats it finds . However up here in the Highlands especially in the lower Cairngorms we have too many rabbits and very few natural predators to keep the numbers in check since the raptors tend to get poisoned illegally by some farmers and gamekeepers. We already have beaver in the West Highlands and Wild Boar. Wild Boar have been around for a few years but I don't know if they are left to roam free, wild boar can be dangerous.

As I said people need to be educated and the proof of this is in the killing of almost all the re-introduced Red Kites up here in the North of Scotland.

[1320Lichtie]

I like beavers

Beavers are cool. They're dams are smart too. Bring back beavers

[CityDave]

[topcat(The most tip top)]

i have heard many other similar stories including the Banff beast

I think I dated her in the mid '90s Edited February 7, 2015 by topcat(The most tip top)

[invergowrie arab]

A few people have spoken about wolves in Sutherland. That plan was shelved. The brainchild of king of the dicks Paul lister for his alladale estate. He claims it is rewilding but it's just a big safari park, the animals are in enclosures and are fed. There is no ecological or scientific value to what he does.

I'm all for giving this a bash and anything that reduces deer and sheep numbers is fine by me. If that makes farming either of them uneconomical tough shit. They are both four footed locusts who keep the highlands in its present state of an ecological monoculture.

Go and take a walk along upper Glen feshie or Glen lui to see what Scotland free if deer and sheep looks like.

[Silvio Tattiescone]

There are more deer than IQ points in the highlands

Ftfy

[CityDave]

A few people have spoken about wolves in Sutherland. That plan was shelved. The brainchild of king of the dicks Paul lister for his alladale estate. He claims it is rewilding but it's just a big safari park, the animals are in enclosures and are fed. There is no ecological or scientific value to what he does.

I'm all for giving this a bash and anything that reduces deer and sheep numbers is fine by me. If that makes farming either of them uneconomical tough shit. They are both four footed locusts who keep the highlands in its present state of an ecological monoculture.

Go and take a walk along upper Glen feshie or Glen lui to see what Scotland free if deer and sheep looks like.

Its true though what people don't realise is how much the landscape has changed over the last 300 years due to farming and estate management, its not a natural scenescape. Those hills or mountains we see as we travel along the A9 from Blair Athol to Inverness most if they had been left alone would have been covered in trees at least on the lower levels, they look bleak and empty and you can see erosion on many of the lower slopes and no tree is ever going to root there, even if it did the sheep would graze it down.

[invergowrie arab]

Its true though what people don't realise is how much the landscape has changed over the last 300 years due to farming and estate management, its not a natural scenescape. Those hills or mountains we see as we travel along the A9 from Blair Athol to Inverness most if they had been left alone would have been covered in trees at least on the lower levels, they look bleak and empty and you can see erosion on many of the lower slopes and no tree is ever going to root there, even if it did the sheep would graze it down.

It wouldn't quite be the Caledonian pine forest. That was already dieing due to the wetter climate before humans finished the job. However you are quite right there would have been significant birch forest and Scots pine where you are talking about.

There could be again within a generation of the interests of the highland landowners was ever challenged.

[LiamDFC]

I quite like the idea of walking around the highlands without the impending fear of being mauled by a wild animal, so I'm going to propose an alternative solution.

According to various scientific and socio-economic predictions (see UN, WHO and Unicef), the decreasing availability of food and the subsequent shortages in the Western World will increase towards a natural tipping-point around 2025. This is obviously already a problem in other parts of the world, but we could potentially turn the overpopulation of deer into a subsidised source of sustenance for our society, addressing the problem before it reaches crisis point.

Couple these bleak predictions with the reality that Iain Davidson is out of contract at Dundee in just a short matter of months, I propose that we combine a National Treasure with a National Concern and kill two birds (and thousands of deer) with one solitary, socially challenged stone.

The answer is simple; equip Iain Davidson with a pair of night-vision goggles, an emergency flair gun and a machete and reintroduce him into the wild.

Not only will he serve as a natural means of population control for the deer, he'll help the surrounding species and environment from being degraded. When the resulting pile of deer carcases reaches a certain, pre-agreed quantity, he would simply use his flair gun to alert conservation specialists who would gather the resources and distribute to communities accordingly. No need for human contact or unnecessary risk; this solution is cheap and relatively* safe.

We would be protecting our countryside, feeding our children and keeping an honourable gent in work.

*I acknowledge that an encounter with Davo may result in substantial injury, loss or damage, but local farmers could be paid an annual fee to help account for any disturbance to their estate.