Wolf attacks increasing

[Campani]

I lived in an area of Canada that had wolves for a year, nobody was concerned about attacks on humans. Grizzly bears were a different matter mind.

 

[Fallowfield]

That’s a bit of a blasé comment.
If your thoughts re upland sheep farming are that its fecked anyway so the farmers concerns are not worth consideration then I don’t think you will get much support here.
I suggest you wait to see how it all pans out before you start to get all exited about re-wilding large areas of the U.K. because for that to happen there will have to be another highland clearance of a kind.

The Highland Clearances happened because it was more profitable for the landowners to have sheep on the land than people.

So maybe that particular episode has run its course.

Time will tell.

It is though a bit unrealistic to expect the taxpayer to fund only sector of the economy while every other one is left to its own devices. Particularly when those funding decision are being made at Holyrood or Westminster rather than Brussels. No MP or MSP is going to want to tell their voters 'Sorry, you can't have a new school/hospital/bypass we've got to fund agricultural subsidies instead.'

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Once subsidies are reduced to WTO levels the reintroduction of apex predators will be the least of their worries.

Just maybe farmers will be less inclined to tolerate such rewilding ideas if there's no sub and sheep production has to be profitable.

It's not straightforward.

Can certainly agree with you there. I think what most are concerned about is the law of unintended consequences.

And it is possible that reintroducing apex predators might benefit farmers.

That doesn't seem to be the case in other countries, despite them generally having much larger wilderness areas than the UK.

 

[Woolly]

I'm not sure all is well with Danish wolves - one was shot recently, which is illegal in the EU.

 

[Bald Rick]

Never mind wolves (probably get relegated from the Prem next season in any case), it's pythons that scare me.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...hole-indonesia-persiapan-lawela-a8402916.html

(Pic for illustration - the video of her being cut from the guts of the snake are "interesting")

 

[ThatsSomeSheep]

Never mind wolves (probably get relegated from the Prem next season in any case), it's pythons that scare me.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...hole-indonesia-persiapan-lawela-a8402916.html

(Pic for illustration - the video of her being cut from the guts of the snake are "interesting")

JC! I cannot unsee that now! Thanks!

TSS

 

[beefandsleep]

The Highland Clearances happened because it was more profitable for the landowners to have sheep on the land than people.

So maybe that particular episode has run its course.

Time will tell.

It is though a bit unrealistic to expect the taxpayer to fund only sector of the economy while every other one is left to its own devices. Particularly when those funding decision are being made at Holyrood or Westminster rather than Brussels. No MP or MSP is going to want to tell their voters 'Sorry, you can't have a new school/hospital/bypass we've got to fund agricultural subsidies instead.'

Yes, I understand a little about the clearances. The point being that it will be ordinary people whose lives and livelihoods will be affected by the proposed introduction of extinct predators into farmed environments by high minded or powerful individuals with no regards to the human cost.
If farming becomes unviable to the point the land is abandoned then that is a completely different situation and rewilding and predator introduction would be a serious proposition.

 

[Dry Rot]

I think the question we all want to know is...........do wolves eat ramblers ?

...and conservationists!

 

[Fallowfield]

Yes, I understand a little about the clearances. The point being that it will be ordinary people whose lives and livelihoods will be affected by the proposed introduction of extinct predators into farmed environments by high minded or powerful individuals with no regards to the human cost.
If farming becomes unviable to the point the land is abandoned then that is a completely different situation and rewilding and predator introduction would be a serious proposition.

It's the withdrawal of subsidies that poses the real threat to Highland farmers on marginal land, not the reintroduction of apex predators which were persecuted to extinction in less enlightened times.

 

[unlacedgecko]

It's the withdrawal of subsidies that poses the real threat to Highland farmers on marginal land, not the reintroduction of apex predators which were persecuted to extinction in less enlightened times.

Nothing less enlightened about them. There's a reason the ancestors shot out wolf, bear and boar.

Hill sheep farming can be viable without subs, but the scale will need to alter.

 

[beefandsleep]

Will wolves stay on the land they are released on?

 

[unlacedgecko]

Will wolves stay on the land they are released on?

Nope!

They respect no land boundaries. "Disperser" males can cover hundreds of miles looking for new packs.

The British wolf is exticnt. Any "reintroduced" animal will be a foreign species.

The foreign Mackenzie Valley (Canadian timber wolf) is causing havoc in the lower 48.

 

[Jameshenry]

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

Wolves would probably kill foxes the same as they kill coyotes in America, but i doubt very much farm animals would benefit , i would rather have a few too many foxes about stealing an odd lamb than a pack of wolves possibly preying on ewes and calves that's for sure

 

[unlacedgecko]

Wolves would probably kill foxes the same as they kill coyotes in America, but i doubt very much farm animals would benefit , i would rather have a few too many foxes about stealing an odd lamb than a pack of wolves possibly preying on ewes and calves that's for sure

Wolf packs will predate anything up to stock bull size.

 

[beefandsleep]

Nope!

They respect no land boundaries. "Disperser" males can cover hundreds of miles looking for new packs.

The British wolf is exticnt. Any "reintroduced" animal will be a foreign species.

The foreign Mackenzie Valley (Canadian timber wolf) is causing havoc in the lower 48.

There you go then, non starter.

 

[beefandsleep]

Nothing less enlightened about them. There's a reason the ancestors shot out wolf, bear and boar.

Hill sheep farming can be viable without subs, but the scale will need to alter.

And with scale and large numbers of stock spread over a large area the risk to that stock from predation is much greater being hard to protect from.
The Italian farmers were told to erect fences to keep the wolves away, funny if it were not so tragic.

 

[fgc325j]

Will wolves stay on the land they are released on?

Will they - like foxes -soon realise that there are easier pickings in urban dustbins !!! or in the skips full of
food past their sell by date outside supermarkets

 

[sean m]

Wolf packs will predate anything up to stock bull size.

i may have to breed bigger terriers

 

[ST61]

back in the 80's was regularly shooting 100 + a year.
travelling the same ground now its unsual to see one even though we have better gear

And how many Badgers do you see

 

[joe soapy]

Although there are a few about, its rare to see them when out at night