The Forestry Commission has issued a press release today. They are apparently struggling to keep the boar numbers down to their agreed level.
Just a thought, but the Commission (Kevin Stannard?) has estimated that the boar’s numbers need to be reduced from 300 to 90. Surely the revenue made from the culling of 210 wild boars would pay for extra manpower, which is being blamed for them falling short of their targets.
Do you think this cull is too high, or do their numbers need to be kept this low for safety and management purposes?
Your comments will be appreciated.
Click HERE for article.
Rob
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It is too bloody high.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is "Why should we humans decide how big the population of a particular species of animal should be at all ?" The only animal what's ever growing population is threatening the environment globally is Homo sapien sapien, that alone! Mother nature is already at work to bring its population down,or wipe it off the surface of earth if the need be, think of the tsunamis,tornadoes,floods,droughts,epidemic diseases etc.
ReplyDeleteBob - I also feel that they could be managed at a higher level than 90 with no problems, but then you will get the angry dog walkers etc shouting off every time they see one.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I have seen them I have respected them, not ran around screaming, not with a dog off lead barking and chasing them, just watching them and I have never had a problem.
Amila - How can anyone argue with that! You are right, but alas the UK is a nanny state where the vast majority of the population are not prepared to adjust and co-exist.
The boars will always require management as they have no natural predators. However, they are being culled from approx 300 to 90 for one reason only.
To keep the scaremongers quiet and the armchair critics happy!
I can't help here Rob, there must be similar habitats in Europe where the experts have data on the number that a given area can support without their having problems with disease, starvation and all that overcrowding brings.
ReplyDeleteThey are not easy to kill, common practise is to use solid ball in a twelve bore, you have to be within a yard or two. High velocity rifles whilst effective could cause more trouble with and to and their dogs walkers.
Perhaps it is time to reintroduce wolves. Or close the area to anyone who disagrees with wildlife being there. I would have thought that is what they go to see.
I think it's too high.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the problem is that Britain is a sorely overcrowded set of islands and populated by people who are risk-averse and insulated (if that's the right term) from nature. Joe and Jane Public don't really want wildlife, they want a sanitised theme-park type of countryside, with fluffy bunnies and cute blue tits and not a lot else, in which they and their dogs and kids can go as they see fit.
If the general public encounter anything they see as 'dangerous' there's an outcry, such as the ridiculous media-driven knee-jerk reaction after the 'fox and twins' incident in London in June. Trouble is, as with all wildlife-human encounters where the wildlife has somehow transgressed, it's the poor old wildlife that inevitably comes off worse.
Amila - well said.
Thank you for your contribution Fay.
ReplyDeleteI think it's not low enough! Those boars are an invasive species that are causing too much destruction to the native environment. We should shoot them all, and give the free meat to the food banks. =)
ReplyDeleteThose boars are a native species also Mercy! Managed to the correct level, they can live free and wild, without too much of a problem.
ReplyDeleteShoot them all, you say!!! You are entitled to your own opinion Mercy, but its a good job you don't have the final say on what lives and dies in our forest!
Not much Mercy there!