MY ire was raised by the article about Chris Packham accusing the grouse estates of being wildlife criminals (Grouse estates accused of ‘relentless wildlife crime’, July4). In my opinion, it is Chris Packham and his desire to bring back lynx and wolves into Scotland that is causing me to believe that doing so would be a criminal act, and I am sick and tired of hearing about Chris’s relentless quest to reintroduce these predators.
READ MORE: Chris Packham accuses grouse estates of ‘relentless wildlife crime’
I come from farming stock. I am not a scientist, a big landowner or a farmer, but I am pretty sure that the extremely rare species we have in Scotland like red squirrels, capercaillie and our own native wildcat among others will be affected by the desire to let loose predators that have not been on the Scottish landscape for over 300 years.
The introductions of predatory species does seem to cause problems. Recently The National carried the story of one of our own native golden eagles that was believed to have been killed by a fish eagle, which was one of the raptors reintroduced some years back. There was the well-meaning citizen who took hedgehogs to one of the Western Isles, and caused havoc with the bird population after her pet hedgehogs went back to nature and were eating the eggs of the island birds. The stoats in Orkney are not native to the islands, and likewise have caused problems with the bird populations and are now to be culled. Minks are here, by accidental introduction, but the creature is a menace to our Scottish wildlife. The introduction of the grey squirrel has decimated our red squirrel population. Sorry to say that even the delightful beaver population reintroduced some years ago seem to now be causing problems, and their supporters now think it would be a great idea to bring in predators to sort the problem out.
Could somebody tell Chris Packham that if there are really too many deer, then perhaps there should be the occasional cull and the meat could be used for school meals.
I may not be a naturalist, but even I know that wolves travel for hundred of miles in search of prey. Lynx can jump many feet in the air to catch a bird. If I could be persuaded that the predators would not kill and eat our rare species, I might relent in my anger about this matter, but no-one could persuade me that a lynx or a wolf would mull over whether a prey was rare or not before it pounced on its dinner.
Could Chris Packham please tell me why the lynx are to be released in Northumbria in the north of England or in our Scottish Highlands? What is wrong with Dartmoor, which is well away from Scotland? If it wasn’t so near Scotland, what is wrong with the habitat of the Lake District? We know that too many people love hiking the Lake District, so you would never hear of the notion of releasing predators there, but it would be OK to release them anywhere in the Highlands even though we too have many tourists hiking our wild country.
In days gone by, elephants, rhino and other animals roamed about in southern England. Perhaps it would be an idea to bring them back to roam about England again. What do you think about that idea Chris?
Andrea C Annand
Address supplied
TOTALLY agree with Chris Packham. Glad he has the media clout to say these things and have them widely published. Keep pushing and keep the landowners and their apologists on the run. Licences for all forms of shooting – deer stalking, grouse killing and pheasant shoots – and if any problems occur on the estate then rescind the licence (and stop anyone involved on the estate from having any future involvement in these forms of “land-use”.
Jonathan Musgrave
via thenational.scot
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