I’m sure Paul Lister is impatient to see progress at Alladale for economic reasons (he is a businessman after all and needs to turn a profit to support the estate and its workers), but beyond the fence, both physically and metaphorically, it simply won’t happen that quickly. A great deal of groundwork has to be done before wolves are ever reintroduced into the wild proper, where they are not fenced in. Look at how long its taken for beaver reintroductions to get anywhere near a reality, and they’re comparatively innocuous viewed alongside wolves.

Ta!
Steve

I’ve just recently returned from myself from Yellowstone where I spent a few enjoyable days watching the Druid wolf pack interacting with grizzly bear, bison, antelope and coyote. The question of the area required for a sustainable wolf pack is highly dependent on a) the size of the pack, b) the quality/type of the habitat and c) the availability of suitable prey. Take a look at the radio-collar tracking maps of wolf pack ranges for Yellowstone (see http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolves.htm) and you’ll see pack territories of markedly varying size. 250,000 acres is actually the size mentioned by David Macdonald from Oxford University and for that Alladale needs to expand greatly to include neighbouring estates.

I guess nobody really knows how much land a wolf pack would need in Scotland, but they’d have an interesting effect on red deer numbers and ..er.. sheep. Plus there needs to be several packs, not just one, to maintain a genetically healthy population. The paper by Nilsen et al (2006) “Wolf reintroduction in Scotland: public attitudes and consequences for red deer management” Jo Royal Soc. gives the figures. However, the habitat needs to be right, and then the prey, and then we might consider wolf reintroduction. Trees for Life are talking much longer time scales than at Alladale. This topic is being discussed next week at Findhorn at a conference organised by TfL and the Wildland Network (see http://www.wildland-network.org.uk/) if you’re interested in following the debate.

Back to the fence then… it’s a tricky one. Personally I’d like to see a demonstration project of how Scotland’s flora and fauna might fare were it put back into place before we chopped, shot, grazed and ploughed our way across it, but as a mountaineer (of sorts) I do have strong reservations about the big fence and what that means for access and the view. Maybe a compromise is a carefully designed and located “permeable” fence with airlock style access points for those of us who want to go into the enclosure unguided? I’ve spent many days and nights in wolf and bear country in the States, Alaska, Greenland and Siberia and it certainly adds something to the whole experience knowing you are not necessarily at the top of the food chain.

Briefly back to Yellowstone if I may… I was struck whilst there by the striking similarity between the Lamar valley (home of the Druid pack) and Glen Derry and Glenfeshie in the Cairngorm. Sure, the Lamar valley is bigger, but the terrain and the mosaic of grassland, river, patchy trees, forest and open mountain landscape was remarkably similar. Clearly we do have good wolf country, rather it is our attitudes toward this animal that are the problem.

Ta!
Steve

If Lister can do it, they all can. Yes show him the door.

As for the fence - unless they were to restrict it to low level sites, it will be vandalised - quite legally. You cannot prosecute wind and snow for criminal damage.

The shop in Ardgay (was it?) seemed doomed to failure. If anybody happens to be passing it would interesting to know if it is busy . Ardgay didn’t look like a hive of consumerism. It’s failure might be a dose of reality for all involved.

To be fair to the BBC, they’re very good at catering to the British desire for wildlife. They also do very good cuurent affairs programs, but one can undestand why they wouldn’t want to mix the two. Likeable misguided millionaire mixed with wildlife - perfect (unfortunately). A bit like the unusual Johnny Kingdom (”Look at that lovely pair of badgers……bugger, I’ve just fallen down a hole”).

A link to a place where we can object would be useful.

John

I see the Mountaineering Council of Scotland have used 350 Kilometres in there statement. It matters if figures are going to be quoted to rebuke Lister that they are the same. I wonder now what are the true size of a wolf pack territory. The case against him needs to get some experts on wolf / bear matters to provide accurate facts.

I wonder why no one points out that Lister has got his numbers wrong let alone every thing else. Lets take the fact that an average Yellowstone wolf pack uses 350 square miles for its territory. So 640 acres to the square mile means he needs, 224,000 acres for one wolf pack. He would of course say he is only having a few animals, but it shows there is not the land mass on his estate, and fencing it of is wrong. It is obscene to allow predators in a caged area `with prey - let alone illegal. Why is he seen as a conservationist with plans like that?