Deer in the news.

Im sure Sikamalc will have a few words on this, Mr Lister keeps banging on about fencing wolves in on Alladale estate, he would need some seriously high fencing for when the snow drifts up there :doh:
 
Tika,

I too raised an eyebrow at the concept of fencing an entire estate. I think historically we are a few species heavier within our deer population because of escapees.

I don't know what people would do if wolfie got out...
 
The fencing of an entire estates in a bid to contain wolves requires licensing under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981. It is illegal to keep predators and prey in the same enclosure, so Mr Lister would need to keep part of Alladale open so that he could keep some deer, shoot them and then throw them over the fence to feed the wolves.

He already has licences for moose and wild boar, but they are kept in enclosures and neither have been particularly successful at that scale.

The impact of European wolves on deer management in Sweden is the most closely applicable model to Scotland, some of the impacts have been unexpected, especially predation on domestic stock and surprisingly, dogs.

there is a rewilding movement promoting some of these species re-establishment programmes here in the Highlands, but there will be other efforts before the wolf, beavers are being trialled in Knapdale and the Lynx is being pushed hard in some quarters.


The Economist article is so typical of the press in that it has some grains of truth in it, but the confection created by journalistic licence distorts the reality so much that it becomes unrecognisable.
 
Just a little observation from the newspaper article. How can deer "gobble up saplings" if there are no mature trees?
 
This is something that keeps raising its head............... Most of Alladale is fenced off I believe, and the Wild Boar that may still be on there are not pure Wild Boar to my knowledge, but I stand to be corrected.
The local estate owners surrounding the estate have not exactly welcomed the scheme with open arms, and I am aware it caused some issues with neighbouring estates when a massive cull was undertaken sometime back to reduce deer numbers.

What I also find slightly amusing is that they still offer and sell stalking on the estate, along with other outdoor pursuits, so income is still coming in from deer!

True it is a shadow of its former self as a stalking estate, which is a shame. It would have made more sense encouraging the native wildlife, such as Black Grouse and Red Squirrels ( although the estate I stalk has already undertaken a trial which Alladale I believe has followed suit). This is good news and would to me be more of a sensible approach than Wolves and Lynx, which has been pointed out can climb fences when there is 6ft of snow against it
 
Very well put malc,would like to hear a comment from alladale if anyone from there enjoys this site
 
For every good well informed sound bite about deer we see in the press, there seems to be a dozen skewed, sensationalised, non stories.
It does cause me grief that the general public will take all this style of verbal diarrhoea as gospel and the last word on deer management and remain fairly ignorant of the true picture.
We should probably remember that for a large swath of our population, information on deer comes from sensationalised sound bites ,jonny Kingdom and autumn watch. There's plenty of professional and recreational stalkers with a wealth of learning and insight into deer that spans decades if not generations, but they would be unlikely to get access to such a platform, and in truth , less likely to put themselves forward.
 
Wolf would be a stretch. Beaver, boar and lynx will be fine back in the UK and bring considerable ecological and economic benefits. The Economist is usually renowned for its balanced reporting.
 
Back
Top