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Reintroduced Animals

Coal said:
I wonder how they're going to prevent them being diluted by hybridization?
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It’s a point - I think they’ve had that issue with the Scottish ones..
 
Kondoru said:
These are properly brought up Wildcats.

They think mating with domestics is icky.
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I suspect this is your self-confessed sarcasm and humor.

In real life, I think that hybridization is an actual threat, as other species have demonstrated (wolves, coyotes, bison, Scottish wildcats, brown bear-polar bear introgression).

On a serious note, why are there so many feral and unneutered domestic cats roaming free in the UK? Why are the feral cats not culled? You have too many songbirds?
 
Endlessly Amazed said:
On a serious note, why are there so many feral and unneutered domestic cats roaming free in the UK? Why are the feral cats not culled? You have too many songbirds?
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Because we are extremely squeamish and sentimental about pest species and would rather see all of our wildlife destroyed by domestic and introduced species as that is deemed to be "nature".

And yes people do hate birds a lot in case they sing or shit on their precious cars.

I wish I was making that up.
 
brownmane said:
Don't we all?:rofl:
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Opinion is divided on the subject.

maximus otter
 
Min Bannister said:
Because we are extremely squeamish and sentimental about pest species and would rather see all of our wildlife destroyed by domestic and introduced species as that is deemed to be "nature".

And yes people do hate birds a lot in case they sing or shit on their precious cars.

I wish I was making that up.
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Thank you for answering this. I have not wanted to offend any UK members with this sort of question, but I have wondered about it for decades. Here in the US, we have similar sentiments and actions, but it - apparently - affects a smaller part of the population. However, I think we are trending in the same way. I suspect social media is partly to blame as it an easy route to appearing virtuous while doing nothing inconvenient.

I have watched many youtube vidoes about UK horse, donkey, dog, and cat rescues, their "safe forever homes," and solicitations for donations to keep the rescued animals fed for the rest of their lives. Over the past five years or so, I have seen an increase in the number of US animal charities follow the same plan. Here in the US, there are increasing numbers of non-governmental, charity programs to catch, spay, and release feral cats. In the Western states, there is an actual threat to native species (antelope, goats, sheep) caused by feral horses who destroy fragile arid vegetation and foul water sources.

I kill any bird or animal I run across which is irreparably damaged or sick, in order to end its suffering. My sentimental friends think this is cruel and I should just "let nature take its course." I am unable to fully understand their perspective.
 
Endlessly Amazed said:
I have watched many youtube vidoes about UK horse, donkey, dog, and cat rescues, their "safe forever homes," and solicitations for donations to keep the rescued animals fed for the rest of their lives
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Of course it is lovely if you can do that for every animal but it is just not always possible or practical. But charities who put animals down are hugely condemned for doing so. It must be very tough working for those charities or being a vet as not only do you have to put healthy animals down due to immense overbreeding by the public but that same public guilt trips you when you do.
 
Yes, the same here. In the US, there are some hungry people. There are feral horses which do damage. There are laws which prohibit public slaughter of horses.

The consequences:
Horses are not slaughtered to feed the poor (or zoo animals) or help the environment.
The US government spends millions of dollars every year to feed captured feral horses which nobody wants. More feral horses live in pens than in the wild.
Horses are transported, often ill or in pain, many miles to legal slaughter in Canada or Mexico.
 
When I worked at the school as a caretaker for several years, we would often need the services of various pest controllers, the RSPCA, vets and one time a beekeeper to deal with a swarm.
The RSPCA woman who visited fairly frequently told me one time that quite often, especially with injured birds and small wild mammals, that a concerned person would ask "Is it going to be okay?", and the stock answer was "Don't worry, we'll take good care of it" - but that was a phrase that actually meant "We'll drive round the corner, out of sight, and wring it's neck to prevent it suffering further because there's very little we can do for it".
 
I sometimes run across birds or small animals like rabbits out in the wilds which are alive but have neck injuries and are sometimes partially disembowelled. I have no idea what predator did this - hawks, eagles, coyotes, bobcats, etc. Perhaps I approached just at the attack moment and the predator ran away. But I suspect that predators regularly kill without eating because it is such a satisfying experience; even though most armchair naturalists say otherwise.

Back to the reintroduced animals: does anyone know if otters kill beavers as food or to protect their territory?
 
Im typing with difficulty as Blackie is on my lap, purring away, trying to get me to stroke him

In an hour, no doubt, he will be outside, catching mice to eat

He is not a pet, but a feral.

Is he a pest? He is a fine mouser, but that is what he was originally bred to do.

He doesnt hunt birds.

New Forest. You would love it, Endlessly amazed, the people who dwell there are allowed to graze livestock, as in medieval times. Those are owned nags, no ferals in this country.

But we have the Chillingham Wild Cattle
 
Kondoru said:
Im typing with difficulty as Blackie is on my lap, purring away, trying to get me to stroke him

In an hour, no doubt, he will be outside, catching mice to eat

He is not a pet, but a feral.

Is he a pest? He is a fine mouser, but that is what he was originally bred to do.

He doesnt hunt birds.

New Forest. You would love it, Endlessly amazed, the people who dwell there are allowed to graze livestock, as in medieval times. Those are owned nags, no ferals in this country.

But we have the Chillingham Wild Cattle
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Perhaps cats are different in the UK. Here in the US, they catch, kill, and sometimes eat birds as well as rodents, snakes, crickets, and anything else they can get their claws or jaws on.
 
More beaver news

Beaver dam helps reduce flooding risk in Pickering, N.Yorks

They were introduced as a 5 year trial in 2019 & have since built several dams, reducing water flow from higher ground & increasing biodiversity.

Now, water is forced out across the floodplain in periods of heavy rain instead of rushing down the river channel, resulting in a multi-braided watercourse which effectively slows the flow.

Early results from Exeter University’s monitoring show that the beavers’ structures do indeed seem to be helping to reduce the peak of the water flow through the site, although it is still too early in the project to be conclusive.

Their work has resulted in a record amount of amphibians recorded at the site. Before the beavers were released just 6 clumps of spawn were recorded, this year the amount of spawn was uncountable. Because of the number of frogs and toads over 12 herons have been regularly seen fishing around the pond and both otters and tawny owls have been caught on camera feasting on the amphibians. Teal and Mandarin have been spotted on the site for the first time too because of the increased water levels.
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Yes, the activity of damming by beavers is increasing the water retention in the upper landscape, thus reducing the flooding further downstream, which is good news.
 
This is quite an interesting read - while there no doubt on which side of the beaver fence the writer is on, there's quite a lot of stuff there that doesn't normally get a mention.

Beavers are tormenting Britain​

https://unherd.com/2023/03/beavers-are-tormenting-britain/

And reintroducing them comes with negatives, for the environment and for people. Indeed, their reintroduction is proof of the fallacy of “rewilding” as a conservation concept. A very expensive fallacy. Michael Gove’s £20,000 is but a drop in the river when it comes to the cost of beaver reintroduction. The Scottish Beaver Trial of 2009-14, which tested the waters for their reintroduction north of the border, cost £2 million in admin alone: a sum that is the stuff of dreams for most conservation charities. And then there is the infrastructure. The standard model of beaver re-introduction is to initially fence the “wild” animals in enclosures of about two hectares. Since beavers both burrow and climb, the fencing has to be heavy duty stuff: installation, per beaver introduction, easily costs £30,000.
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Coal said:
This is quite an interesting read - while there no doubt on which side of the beaver fence the writer is on, there's quite a lot of stuff there that doesn't normally get a mention.

Beavers are tormenting Britain​

https://unherd.com/2023/03/beavers-are-tormenting-britain/
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Don't quite get the 'Tormenting' bit? If it was worded as 'Beavers are costing British people,' that would be more realistic'a headline.
 
Someone once was showing me her estate. She flips up a board.

Underneath are footprints.

"They are big".
"Yes; Auroch and Elk. Its the Mesolithic layer, about ten thousand years old".

So those footprints by the spring were not recent, but very old.

I for one, would like to see such prints and know the animals that made them were still around.

But maybe not too close...
 
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