Wolf attacks increasing

[Dry Rot]

Heard this on R4 this morning. Wolf attacks on livestock are increasing in France where wolves are protected by law. So far this year, the number of reported sightings is around the same as the whole of last year.

The French government pays compensation for authenticated damage by wolves. But the owner has to prove it is the work of wolves. The problem is by the time an animal is discovered, the carcase will have been scavenged other species and the wolf DNA could have come (they argue) from a wolf just feeding on the carcase.

There are increasing fears that wolves will attack humans as they lose all fear of man and move to populated areas. Animals learn from each other and once they find an easy source of prey and learn how to exploit it, they will return again and again. In the 18th century, it was alleged that
"Beast of Gévaudan" killed between 100 - 150 people in a three year period. But it was probably a small group of wolves that had become habituated to an easily available food source.

Having seen how quick some conservationists on here are to point the finger on the scantiest of evidence, what hope that farmers will be compensated if wolves are ever reintroduced here? Why chase venison when mutton is easier to catch and to kill?

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Eur...lves-are-back.-Now-can-it-protect-its-farmers

 

[Fallowfield]

Would the presence of wolves reduce the number of foxes and would farm animals benefit as a result?

 

[CharcoalWally]

Would the presence of wolves reduce the number of foxes and would farm animals benefit as a result?

So the wolves eat the foxes and not the sheep? Isn't that a tad optimistic?

 

[Fallowfield]

So the wolves eat the foxes and not the sheep? Isn't that a tad optimistic?

I thought you purported to have some basic grasp of ecology?

Apex predators affect species below them in the food chain by ways other than simply eating them.

 

[CharcoalWally]

I thought you purported to have some basic grasp of ecology?

Apex predators affect species below them in the food chain by ways other than simply eating them.

I thought you did?

Right, instead of wasting valuable webspace with superciliousness, explain to us how it's going to work please.

 

[ollie989898]

UK is too heavily populated for wolves and bears. Its a mental idea.

 

[Rod Dumbreck]

I thought you did?

Right, instead of wasting valuable webspace with superciliousness, explain to us how it's going to work please.

Ah, I think I know.

The Wolves eat all the Sheep so that Foxes die out

 

[Fallowfield]

I thought you did?

Right, instead of wasting valuable webspace with superciliousness, explain to us how it's going to work please.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

I thought you purported to have some basic grasp of ecology?

Apex predators affect species below them in the food chain by ways other than simply eating them.

Yes , in a natural environment they displace by competition for food.
The UK is primarily not a natural environment. There is an almost limitless supply of food on farms for apex predators - witness the explosion in badger numbers.

We had an Eastern European vet here a while back - she could not believe there was talk of reintroduction of wolves or even bears in the UK. Her view was we are simply too densely populated with a lack of large wild areas like the huge forests of Eastern Europe. Perfectly logical really. Recipe for disaster imo, especially when placed alongside increased access to the countryside.

 

[Fallowfield]

I thought you did?

Right, instead of wasting valuable webspace with superciliousness, explain to us how it's going to work please.

It's possible that reintroducing apex predators (wolf and lynx) would reduce the number of mesopredators ie foxes to the extent that domestic farm animals would benefit.

The mechanisms involved are complex and subtle and require detailed consideration rather than knee jerk, binary responses.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

It's possible that reintroducing apex predators (wolf and lynx) would reduce the number of mesopredators ie foxes to the extent that domestic farm animals would benefit.

The mechanisms involved are complex and subtle and require detailed consideration rather than knee jerk, binary responses.

IF they (foxes) were displaced, where do you think they would go - into the towns where they are already overun with them. Then they get rounded up and dumped back into the countryside.

 

[Fallowfield]

Yes , in a natural environment they displace by competition for food.
The UK is primarily not a natural environment. There is an almost limitless supply of food on farms for apex predators - witness the explosion in badger numbers.

We had an Eastern European vet here a while back - she could not believe there was talk of reintroduction of wolves or even bears in the UK. Her view was we are simply too densely populated with a lack of large wild areas like the huge forests of Eastern Europe. Perfectly logical really. Recipe for disaster imo, especially when placed alongside increased access to the countryside.

Wolves have recolonised Denmark, which has a population density of 131 people per square kilometer, twice that of Scotland.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Wolves have recolonised Denmark, which has a population density of 131 people per square kilometer, twice that of Scotland.

And how many sheep?

 

[joe soapy]

Ah, I think I know.

The Wolves eat all the Sheep so that Foxes die out

Actually we are already seeing a version of that.
Foxes have been in rapid decline since the dead stock rules changed

 

[Poorbuthappy]

And how many sheep?

And how many tourists wanting to walk it's mountains?

It is also part of a continent- Scotland is Islands

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Actually we are already seeing a version of that.
Foxes have been in rapid decline since the dead stock rules changed

Really? We seem over run with them.

 

[Fallowfield]

If wolves pose as much of a threat to humans as some of you claim I think we would have heard about it from the Danes.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

I watched a documentary about the reintroduction of wolves to some valley or other in America. Huge area.

There was an old boy on and in the broadest American country hick accent I’ve ever heard he said:

“The wolf is an EVIL creature. I seen one chase a buffalo down to exhaustion and when he caught it, he didn’t kill it, but just ate the soft bits until the buffalo died.
If the devil himself chose a pet, he’d choose the wolf!”

I don’t fancy one in my garden.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Forgot to say, on a farm where I spread lime a neighbour kept some in a compound. They were used for filming and stuff. If you were working in the field by the compound they would just amble up and down the fence eyeing you up all the time.

Beautiful but evil.

 

[tinsheet]

Best get ready for their arrival