Those arguing for ‘rewilding’ should add Highlander to list of endangered native species
‘REWILDING’ is a new word which is ricocheting around the West Highlands and islands of Scotland.
According to Wikipedia, not always a reliable source, rewilding is the practice of returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer naturally found there.
Its fans range from landowners, many of whom I know are already salivating at the prospect of yet another huge handout if they go along with it, to mischievous urban dwellers who look on rural areas as no more than some form of upland Disney World waiting to be exploited.
Taking the land issue first, who doesn’t want to enjoy and experience Lord Byron’s wild and majestic crags and steep frowning glories of dark Lochnagar for all times?
But as Roy Williamson of the Corries wrote, ‘these days are passed now and in the past they must remain’; successive governments, hedge-fund managers, council planners and electricity companies have seen to that.
One need only drive from Loch Sunart, through Glen Tarbert, Glenfinnan and along Locheil-side to Spean Bridge, across the Great Glen and up into Glen Quoich, to see how the finest landscapes in Europe, little changed in the last 50,000 years, have been ruined for generations by dozens of hydro electric schemes, access tracks, pylons, wind farms, ecologically- dead Sitka spruce forests and other forms of industrialisation.
As much as we would like to see it otherwise, the Scottish Government is unlikely now to call a halt to its questionable renewable and forestry targets let alone pay for the loss of habitat and the reinstatement of numerous hillsides, corries and burns that have been irreparably destroyed in the process. This notion of rewilding is a nonsense and needs to be kicked into reality.
As for the animals, Scotland has indeed lost a great many native species whose reintroduction would be universally welcomed. Unfortunately many groups at the heart of rewilding and other rural restoration projects, insist on including controversial predators such as wolves, bears and lynx on their wishlist, which has done their case no good and only succeeded in getting Scotland’s deer stalkers and sheep farmers’ backs up.
Norway has been engaged in rewilding for some years, but as this is a nation with a greater rural landmass and a smaller human population than Scotland, it is hardly worth making the comparison.
A recent report, however, shows the level of predation is so high in Norway it severely impacts where and how much sheep farming goes on. Recorded losses in 2014 were 3,895 ewes and 18,671 lambs, but the government compensation scheme only covered about three fifths of these, forcing many sheep farmers to go out of business. Large tracts of Norway are zoned for species protection and within these livestock farming is no longer possible.
Parts of Argyll have apparently been ear-marked for the release of lynx in the wild. There are two problems with this. Firstly, containment and, secondly, food. Nothing other than mile upon mile of ugly, high-maintenance, Colditz-style electric fencing will prevent these large meat- eating cats from escaping and who among the ‘right-to-roam’ brigade, the farming community and domestic cat and dog-lovers will put up with that?
Lynx are shy, nocturnal creatures, which puts paid to the argument held by its supporters that their presence will attract large numbers of high-spending visitors to areas such as the island of Mull. What will these animals live on? We already know from the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds that ground-nesting birds are in terminal decline.
There are no rabbits; grouse and ptarmigan are at an all-time low, and the few remaining small mammals such as voles, moles, shrews and mice, will have to be shared with golden and sea eagles, ravens, crows, buzzards, owls, hen harriers and other raptors. I will not dignify the statement that deer will provide the lynx with its staple diet as their numbers, too, have fallen off dramatically in the past decade, and do we really want to see pregnant hinds and newly born calves with their throats torn to shreds and their intestines hanging out?
There are many other rare and threatened species native to Scotland that are now confined to a few lowland parks which should be considered for rewilding. These include reindeer, kyloe (the old breed of small, black, highland cattle), white park cattle, sometimes known as the Wild White (Latin, Urus Scoticus) Shetland Cattle, wild goats, garrons, Eriskay ponies, Highland, St Kilda, Orkney, Moorit and Shetland and Soay sheep.
Oh, there is one other rare native species – perhaps the most important of all – that I haven’t mentioned yet which lends itself to rewilding, and that is man or rather the indigenous Highlander.
They too have been ‘hunted’ almost to extinction and forced out of the glens and straths over the last few decades. Encourage this hardy race to come back to the countryside, and to their crofts and ‘ wee bit hill and glen’, and all else will eventually fall into place.