The Reintroduction of Wolves to Scottland

[Marcus Wolfe]

There are many areas in the world where wolves used to live but where driven to extinction by man.

:wallbash:

 

 

The prey animals in these areas often suffer from overpopulation problems. The only way to fix this is by reintroducing wolves, to balance out the ecosystem. The Scottish highlands are looking prime for wolf reintroduction. They have a red deer overpopulation, it's a large area with very few people, and not many sheep either. The plan for wolf reintroduction goes as follows:

 

1. Wolf Centre

 

Establish an educational wolf centre in the Highlands to promote and support the wolf reintroduction.

 

Important:- a reintroduction will not be successful without promoting knowledge of wolves to all concerned, especially in the Highlands. Promoting knowledge of wolves is the primary role of the Wolf Centre.

 

2. Pilot Study

 

Through Scottish Natural Heritage and other relevant agencies, find 500km2 of land in the Highlands as free of sheep as possible.

 

Through Scottish Natural Heritage and other relevant agencies, reintroduce two wolves as a pilot study to ensure all goes well.

 

3. Nucleus

 

When satisfied, introduce more wolves to establish a few packs, as a nucleus for the wolf population.

 

4. Expansion

 

When the time is right, allow the nucleus to increase in number throughout the Highlands.

 

5. Management

 

Constantly study, monitor and manage the wolves to enhance their recovery, to increase our knowledge about wolves and the science of reintroduction, and to minimise depredation and any other human-wolf conflict.

 

Visit this website for more information, and to see the original source of above information:

http://www.wolftrust.org.uk/

[ninja_lord666]

Why should we care? This is a gaming forum, not a wildlife forum.

 

Anyways, I think this is a great idea! :P Where I live (Wisconsin) we have so many deer it's almost impossible to drive down a road without hitting one. Then again, the wolves might kill our cows! :ohmy: No cows means no milk, no cheese, no ice cream, no yogurt...Say no to wolves! We could use more bears, though; bears don't care about cows.

[Marcus Wolfe]

..........no, bears will eat cows too.

 

The trick is to keep the wolves in the forests and to keep the cows in pens not near forests. That way, the wolves will never get close enough to the cows to eat them. I can't believe Farmers havn't managed to figure that out....

 

Ok, so sometimes that's not always an option, but we have fences and guard dogs for that.

 

In Scottland they're having a similar debate on sheep. But wolf predation on livestock is surprisingly low when other food is available. Just Check out the site!

[ninja_lord666]

Ok, so sometimes that's not always an option, but we have fences and guard dogs for that.

Yeah, I'm sure a German Shepard could easily take out a pack of wolves. :rolleyes: Maybe a Doberman, but when was the last time you saw a Doberman on a farm? Also, a fence would kind of ruin the 'free range' aspect. People nowadays don't like farm animals fenced in.

[mat1]

The government should just buy back the 500km² and put a big fence around it. If Australia can fence off half of our country I'm sure you guys can do that (rabbit proof fence - google it ). keep the wolves in, keep the deer off grazing land, everyone is happy.

[Marcus Wolfe]

Well, Scottland is not a 'fence' sort of place...........

Actually, the sheep industry isn't doing so well in Scottland anymore. Just look at what I found on the site:

Average net income of farms, & additional average subsidy to farms, on poor land in Scotland, including the Highlands, specialising in raising sheep.

Year Average income per farm

in £'s Average subsidy per farm

in £'s

1995/6 * 12,481 23,588

1996/7 * 12,296 23,248

1997/8 * 10,284 21,317

1998/9 ** 2,500 27,200

1999/0 ** -200 24,500

2000/1 ** 300 23,800

Note that average income per farm is poor at best and drops below zero in 1999/00. Therefore most sheep farms rely mainly on subsidies to survive in business.

* Scottish Office (1998)

** SEERAD (2001)

The government would provide compensation for any sheep eaten by wolves. This compensation would probably provide more profit then the sheep itself.

Let's also consider that sheep will overgraze and decimate the foilage in their habitat.

The sheep industry in Scottland needs to be outright REPLACED. Now, wolf ecotourism would not be able to replace all this income, and I never claimed it would. But if we coupled the eco-tourism with some more successful industries, the Scottish Highlands could improve economically.

 

And about the dogs........

Yeah, most dogs will easily be torn apart by packs of, or even lone, wolves. That's why it's a good idea to have about 6 or 7 dogs of a breed that stands a chance in a fight with a wolf. These breeds include (though are not limited to):

All breeds of wolfhound (that one's a no-brainer)

German Shepards

Dobermans

Huskies

Malamutes

Great Danes

Rottweilers

Molossoid/Mastiffs

[leetgamer]

You know you're starting to become annoying with all your pointless posts. Unless you start posting somewhere else other than the lounge, sooner or later you will be considered a spammer. Please stop this nonesense.

 

Like Ninjalord said, this is a gaming forum :

 

80% games, 20% other things.

If you continue this it will be vice-versa.

[Marcus Wolfe]

Ok, ok, point taken. It's just that it's the 20% other things that I've enjoyed most since I came here.

 

What I'm concerned about in Scottland is if people there are ready to accept wolves as part of the environment. I mean, the sheep farmers are doing poorly already, so they're not going to be happy with the idea of letting wolves loose in the highlands. Fortunately, one group that won't be able to object is the hunters. Traditionally, people have hated wolves because they believed that wolves were the reason big game was scarce, even though it was actually the fault of the hunters. But there is actually an overpopulation of red deer in the Scottish Highlands, so big game will still be plentiful after wolves have been reintroduced.

 

This is similar to the famous Yellowstone Park story:

Wolves were all shot under the belief that big game would prosper. However, they overpopulated, starved themselves and wrecked the entire ecosystem. Wolves were reintroduced, the wolves ate a lot of deer, and soon everything was back in balance.