William Kelly
Estate Manager, Ardnamurchan Estates
The most westerly point of the British mainland, the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, has been managed primarily for farming, hunting and fishing for generations and is currently home to 2500 sheep, 400 cattle and 1000 red deer. ardnamurchanestate.co.uk
“When animals have been legally reintroduced with the land owner’s support, I don’t have an issue. That’s when there’s a discussion about what will happen, how much damage is acceptable, how much change in land use is acceptable and how to manage the numbers so everybody can live within that constraint.
“Where it would be an issue is where there’s been the illegal release of animals into areas, then the land owners or appropriate authorities fail to remove them and further damage is caused. If they’re released properly, monitored, and there’s an appropriate management scheme put into place by Scottish Natural Heritage and the releasing body, that’s fine.
“My experience with the-white tailed eagle is that the management scheme put in place was somewhat deficient. If sheep is the easiest foodstuff, then they go for sheep and that’s everything from a newly born lamb to an adult. In a remote area such as this, you can’t just go to market and buy sheep to replace ones you’ve lost. The sheep up here are hefted, which means they graze and live in the same areas, year in and year out, so they’ve got a better survival rate. There’s about an 80% chance that a new sheep will die because of the weather.”
“ANIMALS SHOULD BE RELEASED PROPERLY, MONITORED AND MANAGED”