Posted on 11/30/2007 1:31:03 PM PST by Daniel Bliss
Bringing back animals which were hunted to extinction in Britain - including the wolf, lynx, beaver and wild boar - would not be difficult, according to a new report.
The animals could be brought back to live free in the wild without posing any great threat to people, crops or the environment, it is claimed.
A report from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University (WCRU) said while further work needed to be done on their impact, there was no obvious reason to block their return.
The animals roaming free in remote areas would enhance the natural environment and as a bonus they could form the basis of a multi-million pound tourist industry.
Wildlife tourism in the UK is thriving particularly in Scotland where the reintroduction of the osprey attracted on average 33,600 visitors between 1998 and 2001 while the Red Kite Centre, Wales attracted 33,350 visitors in 2004.
The possibility of the animals' return is raised in the State of Britain's Mammals report for 2007 Mammals Trust UK, which looks at the challenges wildlife will face in the 21st century.
Professor David Macdonald and Dr Dawn Burnham, from the WCRU identified a range of factors including climate change, the spread of infectious diseases, agricultural and forestry practices, and human activity which will all combine to put increasing pressure on the UK's fragile wildlife populations.
Earlier this year the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), added 16 new habitats, 8 terrestrial mammals and the common seal to the UK's Priority List of Species and Habitats.
The report says that wild boar are already living free and breeding rapidly across several south-eastern countries after escaping from farms.
They were a potential threat to people and dogs and caused damage to crops and through rooting to wild flowers, particularly bluebells, and trees.
But they also played an important role as ecosystem engineers increasing habitat diversity and in places they were regarded as an asset because they provided sport and meat to the hunting sector.
Similarly beaver had also escaped into the wild and one was living quite happily near Oxford. Even in the worst case scenario, where beavers caused damage to trees, the cost would only be tens of thousands of pounds while at best the costs would be negligible.
But their presence would contribute to wetland creation helping with consequent water purification and they were useful in flood retention.
"The end result appears to be a very healthy balance sheet in favour of reintroducing the beaver," the report says.
Studies surrounding the reintroduction of the wolf to Scotland, where it was hunted to extinction in the 18th century, found that highland farmers were the most likely to be affected because they would lose livestock.
But they were not absolutely opposed to the wolf's return as it was 'restoring the balance of nature and preserving Scotland's heritage'.
They recognised the value of wildlife tourism and knew they would be compensated if they lost sheep to predation.
The studies had found that 1,000 square kilometres could support 25 wolves and that they would keep down deer populations and save the expensive cost of regular culls in Caledonian pine forests.
The lynx had disappeared during medieval times because of deforestation, declining deer populations and persecution but all these had now been reversed. The EU Habitats Directive had also stated that the European lynx should be considered for reintroduction.
Studies by Aberdeen University had identified two areas in Scotland which would provide suitable habitat for lynx. It had been estimated that current deer populations could support 400 lynx in the Highlands and 50 in the southern Uplands.
The report identifies the brown hare, mountain hare, red squirrel, hedgehog, harvest mouse, scottish wildcat and grey seal as all being threatened British mammals whose populations were in decline.
One high point has been the recovery of the otter which had suffered severe decline in the latter half of the 20th century because of pollution. But the clean up of rivers had resulted in the otter's recovery and continued expansion.
Well, that’s no fun ! (disclosure: I’m a foxhunter in the US)
When are the idiot Frogs going to buy some Llamas? 1 neutered male llama can guard about 300 sheep from canine predators. Lamb loss falls to almost zero. Since they don’t have bears or mountain lions in France, they should be safe.
Haven’t these people seen Jurassic Park!
They are working on it......
The only firearms a Brit can own now are basic shotguns, some short carbines and rifles upto .303 calibre.
All of these require certificates and a "good reason" to have them, so they are only owned by registered target shooters, hunters or farmers.
Wolves! Wolves?
what are they thinking? Do they even have any large prey species left for the wolves to prey on? I thought even large deer were gone from GB!
Why don’t they think small and bring back some european wildcats and maybe some kind of antelope IF that works out then move up to lynx and maybe some kind of european elk. But a pack type large carnivore in a place like GB? Jeeze, that’s just stupid.
“Studies by Aberdeen University had identified two areas in Scotland which would provide suitable habitat for lynx. It had been estimated that current deer populations could support 400 lynx in the Highlands and 50 in the southern Uplands.”
Lynx don’t eat deer. They weigh about 35 lbs. is this the same animal? Cougars eat deer. Lynx eat birds and rabbits, mice, chipmunks and squirrels.
“I wish someone would introduce some predators into Phoenix. Pigeons have absolutely taken over in some areas.”
Phoenix has lots of predators who would gladly reduce the number of pigeons.
The City government just won’t let the predators hunt the pigeons.
I'm not disputing this --- I don't know enough about such things to dispute --- but there was a window of time (roughly 10,000 - 7,000 BC) as the ice was retreating when there was a land bridge connecting the south-eastern tip of Ireland with south-western England, and connecting also England to the continent of Europe. Supposedly humans crossed the land bridge from Britain to Ireland in about 7,000 BC; then the rising sea level flooded the land bridges and, voila, the British Isles.
So why would there be snakes in Britain but not in Ireland, when the snakes had a couple of thousand years to complete this migration before the lowlands were flooded?
Yellow fever and malaria are viri and protozoan parasites and...they’re not animals. They’re in a different kingdom....Saudi Arabia maybe? (See tagline).
How has the UK managed to survive without these animals? I thought once an animal was hunted to extinction, everything exploded...or something?
I think your narrative is a bit .. exaggerated.
At any rate, I didn;t advocate introducing wolves - or anything else - anywhere.
I just amde a comment on the historical absence of serpents in Ireland and the fact that that had nothing to do with St. Patrick.
The “snakes” St. Patrick banished from Ireland were the Druids.
That they should.
Wild boar, properly prepared, is excellant eating. Personally, I woudn’t care to eat a wolf.
If the wolves attack any muslims can they be tried for “hate crimes?”
Got me. I’m just telling you what the zoologists say.
The British Snake Fauna is rather limited anyway. I think they have the common grass snake, Natrix natix, the common adder, Vipera berus and one other snake Coronella?. All small and not very very common. So, its not like England was ever crawling with snakes.
I do believe there is a small lizard found in Ireland.
One other thing about glaciation in Europe as compared with the U.S. In Europe, the major Mountain Chains run for the most part east to west. In America they run from north to south. Consequently when the glaciers advance in Europe, it was difficult for many species of plants and animals to survive north of the mountain chains as they were trapped against them as warmer climes proceeded southward. In America vegetation and animals coould easily move north and south with the advancing and retreating glaciers.
I'm in Tennessee. When the glaciers pushed south, they say, all the flora and fauna retreating down the Appalachians ended up in southern Appalachia. This is illustrated by the fact that, for instance, the Great Smokey Mountains are home to pret-near every species that exists from Ontario to Georgia.
Or something like that.
I always did think Tennessee was one of the privileged places on earth.
I still don't understand about the snakes of the British Isles. Seems to me like it would have been so easy for them to re-establish their niches, especially in view of those land bridges. Apparently they didn't. But that's one of a hundred billion things I don't understand.
By way of a rider to this reply, perhaps it would be useful to add for those who don't know the U.K. situation at all that these legal gun-owners are still a pretty large group. Shooting field sports have, in fact, been flourishing in recent years. The three large commerical shooting estates (mostly pheasant) within a few miles of where I live have never done such good business: for many city businessmen, a day's shooting has replaced the golf-course as the must-do networking recreation. And all my farming neighbours have at least two legally-owned guns. While grouse shooting and deerstalking are still rich men's sports, there are many other forms of shooting field sport which are accessible to more or less anybody at reasonable cost.
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