My use of the word Apex may not be correct, but my understanding is that Otters are at the top (apex) of their food chain and nothing preys on them in this country, that is why I thought it appropriate to use the word apex!
And a good thing too! We can live with losing what they need to eat.
My cormorants license was for 2, up to 4 now the guy from natural England said just don't be caught with more dead than that onsite at any one time. I used to have to keep the dead ones for inspection so just kept the first 2.
Not when the cost of lost stock is nearing £250,000
Wrong, when they ran out of eels, they dine on fish, run out of fish they go for birds, when they.... crayfish swan mussels mink cats the world is their Oyster. Just like Buzzards & foxes they will continue to do well, they scavenge, they are doing well on the waste that we throw at them, roadkills landfill sites kebabs, Plenty of Buzzards & Foxes in Norwich City centre & Otters too! Don't see too many fish or rabbits there though.
would you feel the same about a chicken farmer that didnt fence?
Can't fence it as the banks are not wide enough to accommodate it and even if we could were not aloud to as we're on a flood plain.
Well everydays a school day! otters eating kebabs !
All predators can be a pain , however im old enough and been around poultry livestock and game birds to accept you cant just keep killing and killing to try to stop predation it doesnt work as as soon as you remove one another will take its place , at some point the acceptance that you have to be proactive and stop the access to predators has to sink in!
I have definitely found a mink killed by an otter on a sandy bank on the river Frome.
Isn't that the whole story of farming though, you plant a seed or a crop, some thing comes along slugs it, birds move in, rabbits move in, deer, insects, weather, its a constant battle against nature, & nature can be bloody cruel sometimes. You can either give in, or keep striving. I'm not a chicken farmer, but I do enjoy my own FREE RANGE eggs. These eggs are now priceless, about 7 times the price of gold. They're worth protecting.
Of course it is however the point im trying to make is eg you have a nice flock of free range hens , you dont pop a shed down in a field and just let them fend for themselves . Going out 2 mornings later to find them all dead feathers everywhere then sit there to try to shoot the culprit , then restock after you have shot it only to have the same scenario repeat time and time againIsn't that the whole story of farming though, you plant a seed or a crop, some thing comes along slugs it, birds move in, rabbits move in, deer, insects, weather, its a constant battle against nature, & nature can be bloody cruel sometimes. You can either give in, or keep striving. I'm not a chicken farmer, but I do enjoy my own FREE RANGE eggs. These eggs are now priceless, about 7 times the price of gold. They're worth protecting.
