Should Wolves be reintroduced in the UK

Call for wolves to be reintroduced
One of Scotland's wealthiest landowners has called for wolves and wild lynx to be reintroduced to help keep red deer numbers down.
Paul van Vlissingen, who owns a 32,000 hectare estate at Letterewe, Achnasheen, Ross-shire, in the Western Highlands, commissioned a three-year study costing about £300,000 on deer and their impact in the wild.

Mr Vlissingen said he had employed five scientists, including UK experts on deer, on the project.

He said culling deer had a low long-term effect on deer numbers, and that the number of deer in Scotland is preventing the regrowth of vegetation.

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" There is enormous eco-tourism building in the world, and Scotland is losing out "
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Paul van Vlissingen

Mr Vlissingen said: "I think that something that could be debated is to divide Scotland into voluntary zones - some areas where you have practically eliminated deer, those areas where you want a specific natural regeneration of forests, and other areas where you manage deer as part of the concept of wild land.

"In that concept I think wolves and lynx would fit very well, and I can promise you that if you do your research you will find that there are no known cases of anybody ever being eaten by wolves in Europe in the past century.

"There are thousands of people who live amongst the wolves in Canada and Alaska and that's no problem at all."

The study claims Scotland has 300,000 red deer which are preventing regeneration of woodland and shrubs.

Mr Vlissingen dismissed culling as a means of control.

He said: "The culling has been happening for many years now and the official policy is not effective."

The last wolf in Scotland was shot in the 18th century. Lynx have been absent since prehistoric times.

Mr Vlissingen said he believed reintroduction of both creatures would boost tourist numbers.

He said: "Scotland has to create more excitement than a monster in Loch Ness - we have to create in Scotland more excitement about our rural areas.

"There is enormous eco-tourism building in the world, and Scotland is losing out."

The study has been made available to MSPs, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Deer Commission for Scotland and deer management groups.

Many of you on this forum have them in your countries what do you think.

Wolves here in Michigan are being destroyed..Even wolves that are part dog and are kept by citizens....Wolves are not some evil thing, they are part of the food chain...Only the old wolves go in and destroy peoples live stock because of agility loss...They are social and wonderful animals.....They've gotten a bad rap....They need to be reintroduced to keep the deer problem down, which is big here.

Anytime I have read about "reintroduction" of any animals back into an ecosystem it has been a clusterf***......lol rabbits in australia....no no huge problem ok red fox.......no no huge problem......fox in New Zealand brilliantly taking out the landbased parrats there! Nope introduction of animals into an established ecosystem throws it way out of balance!

One of the biggest reason.......humans don't change their habits to this new "inhabitant" and it just SUCKS hard🙂

Oh and the brilliant idea to put grizzlies into Montana just awesome.....lol not.

despite living in Scotland, its not something i've really given much thought to...despite the fact that i go camping quite alot as well

it'd be pretty cool though...and if their numbers increase then we can just blow **** out them with guns like we did the last time

It's only common knowledge that when one species is taken out, others increase...

Originally posted by debbiejo
It's only common knowledge that when one species is taken out, others increase...

or said species that has taken over (in a prey/predator relationship) dies as well.......plus nothing in the wild is as simple as 1+1=2 its dynamics are far greater which is why introduction (especially the lynx) would seriously throw balance out of whack.......who says these new predators will hunt deer? Predators will go after the easiet prey.........more like domestic animals🙂

and its wolverhampton! wolverhampton wanderers! we're by far the greatest team, the world as eva seen!!

Originally posted by soleran30
who says these new predators will hunt deer? Predators will go after the easiet prey.........more like domestic animals🙂

They sure do....Deer that is......Only the old ones that can't do the domestic animals....do a study on wolves.

Originally posted by Deano
and its wolverhampton! wolverhampton wanderers! we're by far the greatest team, the world as eva seen!!

😆 Not those Wolves Dean - Anyway Millwall No one likes us but we don't care - You midland poofs j/k 😕

Originally posted by debbiejo
They sure do....Deer that is......Only the old ones that can't do the domestic animals....do a study on wolves.

an old wolf is still a wolf........not everyone will be so kind as you debbiejo.....one attack creates media histeria🙂 So there is that aspect.

More imporantly look up what the mongoose has done to hawaii, to New Zealand. The rabbit in australia, then the red fox in australia and new zealand.

Bring out your riot gear,
Wolves are here! Wolves are here

Fight, fight, wherever you may be,
We are the boys from The Black Country.
We'll meet you all, wherever you may be,
For we are the boys from The Black Country.😄

Originally posted by Deano
Bring out your riot gear,
Wolves are here! Wolves are here

Fight, fight, wherever you may be,
We are the boys from The Black Country.
We'll meet you all, wherever you may be,
For we are the boys from The Black Country.😄

Evil

We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, Said We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r Said We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r Said We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil, We r evil.

Millwall till I Die!

🙂

Originally posted by soleran30
an old wolf is still a wolf........not everyone will be so kind as you debbiejo.....one attack creates media histeria🙂 So there is that aspect.

More imporantly look up what the mongoose has done to hawaii, to New Zealand. The rabbit in australia, then the red fox in australia and new zealand.

There aren't many around anymore.....

Would it make a difference to humans?

Originally posted by soleran30
Anytime I have read about "reintroduction" of any animals back into an ecosystem it has been a clusterf***......lol rabbits in australia....no no huge problem ok red fox.......no no huge problem......fox in New Zealand brilliantly taking out the landbased parrats there! Nope introduction of animals into an established ecosystem throws it way out of balance!

You are talking about introductions here, not reintroductions. PLacing an animal were it never has existed in an element that it did not evolve for or inhabit once before of it's own valition is a bad idea. Reintroduction, in some cases has been both successful and benificial.

Originally posted by soleran30
Oh and the brilliant idea to put grizzlies into Montana just awesome.....lol not.

Why not, please give some reasons.

Originally posted by soleran30
or said species that has taken over (in a prey/predator relationship) dies as well.......plus nothing in the wild is as simple as 1+1=2 its dynamics are far greater which is why introduction (especially the lynx) would seriously throw balance out of whack.......who says these new predators will hunt deer? Predators will go after the easiet prey.........more like domestic animals

More than likely, lynx won't hunt deer, they hunt rabbits and smaller prey. As for the wolves, they actually prefer wild prey and only resort to domestic livestock when their preferred prey has been relocated or decreased in population where they are no longer a viable prey species. Instances of wolves preffering livestock over available deer or moose populations are the exception rather than the rule.

Originally posted by soleran30
More imporantly look up what the mongoose has done to hawaii, to New Zealand. The rabbit in australia, then the red fox in australia and new zealand.

None of these have been reintroductions. These animals were never a part of these ecosystems to begin with.

Yeah, but on the other hand, even the 200 years since they blew out the Wolves means that it is already a very different ecosystem to the one they left, so it can't be seen as just putting back things as they were.

And as for the Lynx... I don;'t know how anyone could even begin to truly predict the input of reintroducing an animal absent for milennia. That is no different from introducing a new species.

"You are talking about introductions here, not reintroductions. PLacing an animal were it never has existed in an element that it did not evolve for or inhabit once before of it's own valition is a bad idea. Reintroduction, in some cases has been both successful and benificial."

Lynx has not been there since prehistoric hence it is new and no one can really say how or what the lynx will really do in that enviroment we can assume many things based on past behaviors in different enviroments.

Wolfs haven't been there for generations! No natural animal in this habitat will understand the threat these new predators present so for all practical purposes wolves are new its been what upwards of 300 years now.......thats a FEW generations of prey🙂

So we can say in a typical habitat these are observed behaviors and this is what they do now with this lynx and wolves will not behave the same because the prey won't. One thing nature has taught man is do not try and second guess her.........

olves are a part of british mythology at some point. I dont see the harm if there numbers are monitered

we need to keep them around so future generations can enjoy them

Originally posted by Sir Whirlysplat
Call for wolves to be reintroduced
One of Scotland's wealthiest landowners has called for wolves and wild lynx to be reintroduced to help keep red deer numbers down.
Paul van Vlissingen, who owns a 32,000 hectare estate at Letterewe, Achnasheen, Ross-shire, in the Western Highlands, commissioned a three-year study costing about £300,000 on deer and their impact in the wild.

Mr Vlissingen said he had employed five scientists, including UK experts on deer, on the project.

He said culling deer had a low long-term effect on deer numbers, and that the number of deer in Scotland is preventing the regrowth of vegetation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" There is enormous eco-tourism building in the world, and Scotland is losing out "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul van Vlissingen

Mr Vlissingen said: "I think that something that could be debated is to divide Scotland into voluntary zones - some areas where you have practically eliminated deer, those areas where you want a specific natural regeneration of forests, and other areas where you manage deer as part of the concept of wild land.

"In that concept I think wolves and lynx would fit very well, and I can promise you that if you do your research you will find that there are no known cases of anybody ever being eaten by wolves in Europe in the past century.

"There are thousands of people who live amongst the wolves in Canada and Alaska and that's no problem at all."

The study claims Scotland has 300,000 red deer which are preventing regeneration of woodland and shrubs.

Mr Vlissingen dismissed culling as a means of control.

He said: "The culling has been happening for many years now and the official policy is not effective."

The last wolf in Scotland was shot in the 18th century. Lynx have been absent since prehistoric times.

Mr Vlissingen said he believed reintroduction of both creatures would boost tourist numbers.

He said: "Scotland has to create more excitement than a monster in Loch Ness - we have to create in Scotland more excitement about our rural areas.

"There is enormous eco-tourism building in the world, and Scotland is losing out."

The study has been made available to MSPs, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Deer Commission for Scotland and deer management groups.

Many of you on this forum have them in your countries what do you think.