Throd save us!

[rynnor]

By shooting 750,000 deer a year...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21688447

 

[Raven]

Wouldn't be a problem if we still had wolves!

 

[rynnor]

You would need a lot of wolves - a pack would likely only kill one or two a week.

Thats only a hundred a year 7500 packs of wolves just to maintain - in reality domestic animals would be easier to hunt and wolves are also happy to scavenge so they probably wouldn't be a huge help.

 

[dysfunction]

Introduce Lions then...

 

[rynnor]

Introduce Lions then...

We are the top predator in these lands - we need to do our job and start eating the problem - mmm venison...

 

[Raven]

Venison doesn't work very well in Birdseye burgers I am afraid.

But yeah, more people should eat it, it's lovely. I actually prefer it to beef for a steak.

 

[Chilly]

Kill half of em and then have a huge feast! Then the next day stop benefits.

 

[DaGaffer]

Venison doesn't work very well in Birdseye burgers I am afraid.

But yeah, more people should eat it, it's lovely. I actually prefer it to beef for a steak.

I had an amazing Venison burger in New Zealand. Did fall apart a bit though.

 

[CorNokZ]

You would need a lot of wolves - a pack would likely only kill one or two a week.

Thats only a hundred a year 7500 packs of wolves just to maintain - in reality domestic animals would be easier to hunt and wolves are also happy to scavenge so they probably wouldn't be a huge help.

Not true.. So far in Denmark, only three wolves have been spotted, who have migrated from Poland to Germany and later on to Denmark. They are not a pack, but roam around on their own killing sheeps. Some sheep herders have lost up to 15 sheep on a single night, because the wolves go on a blood rush and just kill everything on sight.

The debate in Denmark is now whether to kill off these wolves or let them be and reintroduce the wolves to the Danish fauna

 

[Fweddy]

I would love it if they reintroduced wolves to Britain. But I'd also love affordable, wild venison. So basically I'll be happy as long as a lot of deer die.

Though I do enjoy photographing deer and that's made a lot easier by there being one behind every other tree.

 

[rynnor]

We have a lot of deer locally - I have watched them crossing roads - it's not a pretty sight.

They just head down sprint accross ignoring any vehicles - a direct hit in a car can be fatal for both parties.

Apparently 50,000 deer collisions a year in the UK - 300 humans injured an 10 deaths a year.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

I would love it if they reintroduced wolves to Britain. But I'd also love affordable, wild venison. So basically I'll be happy as long as a lot of deer die.

Though I do enjoy photographing deer and that's made a lot easier by there being one behind every other tree.

If they're park deer then they're often very calm and let you get very close. In Richmond and Bushey Park in particular, you can pretty much walk right up to about 10 foot away from them and they don't really care. Obviously this doesn't apply for every deer and each one should be approached slowly, calmly and carefully. Oh, and know your seasons. Don't approach males at certain times of year or any mother with a child of any age.

 

[noblok]

You would need a lot of wolves - a pack would likely only kill one or two a week.

Thats only a hundred a year 7500 packs of wolves just to maintain - in reality domestic animals would be easier to hunt and wolves are also happy to scavenge so they probably wouldn't be a huge help.

You wouldn't need to kill 750k each year, though. Unless you assume the deer population doubles each year, the maintenance culls would be far lower than the initial cull to halve the population. Going by current numbers just to stop the population from growing would require an additional 37,405 deer being killed (source). So for a population half the current population that would make about 19k deer a year or 950 wolves (a wolf kills about 20 deer a year, source).

So Raven has a point: if you'd still have had a decent wolf population this would never have become a problem. However, reintroducing wolves right now wouldn't quickly solve the issue. Reintroduction of wolves might help with maintenance of the population after the initial cull, though.

 

[rynnor]

So Raven has a point: if you'd still have had a decent wolf population this would never have become a problem. However, reintroducing wolves right now wouldn't quickly solve the issue. Reintroduction of wolves might help with maintenance of the population after the initial cull, though.

Its pointless to speculate on as it will never happen in the regions where the deer are most destructive because of farmland / human fears. Even attempts to re-introduce a pack in the highlands have been opposed bitterly.

 

[Fweddy]

If they're park deer then they're often very calm and let you get very close. In Richmond and Bushey Park in particular, you can pretty much walk right up to about 10 foot away from them and they don't really care. Obviously this doesn't apply for every deer and each one should be approached slowly, calmly and carefully. Oh, and know your seasons. Don't approach males at certain times of year or any mother with a child of any age.

Thanks for the advice. I mainly go to a nature reserve near my house where it's generally discouraged to leave the paths and the deer are quite shy so getting close isn't usually an option. All part of the challenge

 

[Scouse]

It's pointless to speculate about wolves. The british public are scared shitless by foxes.


Anyway, *love* venison. Eat it often.

 

[Zenith]

This is the curse of us fucking up the local ecology of our wildlife ages ago. We've had the same problem in Sweden as well... It's a problem that wont go away. The very same farmers that pushed for the near-extinction of our local wolves is crying cus of the surplus of their prey now.

 

[Zenith]

We've also had a slightly bigger problem with a rapid increase of moose. Every year we had atleast one stupid fuck getting stuck in our pool. Sometimes a bloody crane is needed.

 

[Shagrat]

It would be brilliant if we could reintroduce wolves to solve this problem, but you'd have the Daily Mail up in arms about wolves stealing babies or jobs or whatever as soon as it was announced.

 

[rynnor]

I dont think wolves would be very happy in our densely populated, overly fenced, full of roads and cars little country tbh.

 

[Zenith]

Surely the only places with fitting environment would be Scotland and parts of... wales?

 

[Tom]

I think we should allow the Caledonian Forest to regrow across large parts of uninhabited Scotland. We should then reintroduce wolves into the area and run it as a huge national park (much like parts of the US have bears wandering around).

I also think we need to completely exterminate the grey squirrel so as to allow the red to return in numbers. I'd eat a squirrel pie, no problem.

 

[rynnor]

Surely the only places with fitting environment would be Scotland and parts of... wales?

Sheep and Wolves? Is that really a good idea? The sheep farmers would have shot them all within hours of release tbh...

 

[rynnor]

I also think we need to completely exterminate the grey squirrel so as to allow the red to return in numbers. I'd eat a squirrel pie, no problem.

The Reds wont come back - we chopped down their habitat - Greys are able to feed on a wider range of foods thus their domination.

Locally we have the Black squirrels displacing the Greys.

 

[Zenith]

True, was thinking of adding the potential sheep problem So only Scotland?

 

[Wij]

Introduce Lions then...

That was my first thought too. I shouted it the radio and felt good about myself.

 

[rynnor]

Foot n mouth would thin their ranks a bit

 

[Tom]

The Reds wont come back - we chopped down their habitat - Greys are able to feed on a wider range of foods thus their domination.

Locally we have the Black squirrels displacing the Greys.

There are plenty of reds in Northumberland, where selective culling has been used, and also on Anglesey.

 

[throdgrain]

Selective culling pf grey squirrels, are you sure?

Greys are vermin, so there is no selection, you just kill em all (tm) , but despite that there are still loads of them. Not sure about that at all.

 

[rynnor]

There are plenty of reds in Northumberland, where selective culling has been used, and also on Anglesey.

They never disappeared in some places but they wont come back in the south where their habitats are gone - they are a bit specialised in diet - for instance unlike the greys they cant actually digest acorns.