Let’s take a walk on wild side back into woodlands of past
A FEW years ago I wrote a column imagining what it would be like if Cardiff had never lost its canals.
It was just a bit of a thought experiment really.
As the world is so glum, facemasked and up to the eyeballs in Covid I thought it would be nice to look to the future and conduct a similar thought experiment again. Only this time not about canals.
This time I thought it would be rather fun to talk about animals.
Not just any animals. I am talking about creatures that were once native to Wales and are now extinct.
Last week it was announced wild bison were going to return to the UK for the first time in 6,000 years in Kent.
Once this herd grows they will expand the programme throughout the rest of the UK.
This is great news because bison kill trees by eating their bark and rubbing against them to remove their fur.
“Wait!” I hear you cry, “we need to be planting more trees, not killing them.”
And you are right, increasing the amount of trees is really useful.
However, bison are not forest destroyers – they are woodland managers.
The trees they kill actually make the forest healthier and more vibrant.
The trees rubbed to death by the bison create dead wood that creepy crawlies love.
These in turn will be food for birds. On top of this they make clearings in forests.
LYDIA STEPHENS
The sunlight that comes in allows wildflowers to bloom.
The wildlife trust that is introducing the bison expects turtle doves and nightingales to flourish with these clearings.
Humans have absolutely decimated our native species.
We have hunted pretty much all of
AAMIR MOHAMMED
KATIE-ANN GUPWELL our large mammals (except deer) to extinction.
If an animal is cool, beautiful or interesting the only way we seem to be able to express ourselves is to kill it.
So, I say, why stop at bison? Ecosystems are really precarious and every animal has its role.
Why not reintroduce wild boar as well? Yes, we do have some boar that have escaped from farms but there is nothing like the national spread we once had.
The beast I would like to see reintroduced in Wales more than any other is the beaver.
Beavers are native to Wales and were once found throughout the country but were hunted to extinction around the Middle Ages for their meat and fur.
If the bison is the woodland manager the beaver is the city planner.
The dams they build create wetland which they then manage. This has all kinds of benefit to us including reducing
BRONTE HOWARD
MARCUS HUGHES
flooding, preventing soil erosion and improving water quality within streams and rivers. Now I know what you are thinking – you are thinking that with all these herbivores, we are going to need to cull them.
And just like with the trees, you’re right.
The plan for the bison in Kent is to cull some of them if numbers get out of control.
However, there is an even better solution.
Mother nature has produced her own natural “cullers” in the form of large predators that used to live here before we hunted them into oblivion.
If we were to introduce wolves into the UK as well it would help maintain the populations of boar, deer and bison.
It would not just manage the numbers of these creatures, but would also make these herds stronger by eliminating
RUTH MOSALSKI
weaker members.
The same could be said for bears. Imagine the tourism we could build up in Powys and Gwynedd if we could run “wolf tours” where people would go on drives or hikes to catch sight of these beautiful, elusive predators.
You could stargaze in the Brecon Beacons and hear the sounds of wolf howls ringing through the night as it should be.
As soon as you mention introducing wolves to the UK, people are immediately nervous. They worry about the risks to human life.
But these fears are misplaced. There is little evidence that wolves that are not rabid, cornered or frightened attack humans.
On the contrary they tend to avoid them.
There are of course the risks to livestock but this can be mitigated by reimbursing farmers for losses. But for centuries we have steamrollered our nature and environment. Let’s turn the tables and welcome back our neighbours from the past.
If an animal is cool, beautiful or interesting the only way we seem to be able to express ourselves is to kill it
WILL HAYWARD