Natural world

[Dan Salter]

The problem witham, is that the minute he fences the land it becomes an enclosure which by law has all the ZOO rules placed on it...one of those being that a prey and predator cannot be housed in the same enclosure....which ruins the whole ethos behind rewilding!...as the animals were meant to be controlling their own numbers through predation.

It seems a bit odd as even on a nature reserve there are predators and prey at every level of the food chain eating each other! (from insect up to mammals like rabbit and fox) but i guess the loophole being that although the nature reserve may be fenced...most creatures are small enough that these fences dont exist?

[witham]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

the impression I got from the neighbours was - were let him do the hard work and see if he fails but if its a sucess were ready to cash...I mean join in with his project

Yes I agree, they are perhaps waiting to see if it's more lucrative than their fishing or Grouse, Deer etc shooting parties, some business men come from Europe and spend silly amounts of money for the 'pleasure' of blasting the poor animals and I remember reading a few years ago that when Grouse were particularly scarse after a couple of disasterous breeding seasons that there was very little for them to shoot in some places and they were even allowed to shoot the wild goats some of which can be so tame they will come to tourists cars for food and almost eat out of their hands, just to give them their bit of sport so their hosts didn't lose face.

[witham]

[quote=Dan Salter;262773]The problem witham, is that the minute he fences the land it becomes an enclosure which by law has all the ZOO rules placed on it...one of those being that a prey and predator cannot be housed in the same enclosure....which ruins the whole ethos behind rewilding!...as the animals were meant to be controlling their own numbers through predation.

Ahhhhh I see, but I would have thought that as his protect was such an important experiment that they could perhaps bend the rules a bit in his favour.

[sanderling]

I found it very interesting Natural World programme...

I was suprised at how un-hostile the adjoining landowners were and seemed to appreciate the aims of the project knowing that this is an evolving vision and process with many problems to solve... the more land that can be connected up to form a larger area the better, I think thats the only way it could ever begin to function without looking like a big open plan zoo... even if that is what it will really ever be and that would be a great thing to achieve.

Where there's a will...

[deer boy]

Originally Posted by sanderling

Where there's a will...

There's money to be had

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by deer boy

There's money to be had

Yes! it always the RICH English that take the Scots land and keep the Scots out..You can hardly blame them for wanting access to what was their land to start with.

Although this MFI Englishman seems to be doing the right thing.

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by sanderling

I found it very interesting Natural World programme...

I was suprised at how un-hostile the adjoining landowners were and seemed to appreciate the aims of the project knowing that this is an evolving vision and process with many problems to solve... the more land that can be connected up to form a larger area the better, I think thats the only way it could ever begin to function without looking like a big open plan zoo... even if that is what it will really ever be and that would be a great thing to achieve.

Where there's a will...

I hear you..but to be honest it would never be a big open plan Zoo..the whole ethos behind rewilding is almost 'no intervention' by man...(other than the fences)..as compared to a zoo where each species is seperated or a wildlife park where certain species mix...all the animals are kept by keepers, housed, fed, etc etc...in rewilding they live and die..eat each other, numbers go up and down...and everything including vegetation is left to be just that...WILD....succession will happen, and old trees will die and fall naturally creating clearings for succession to happen all over again.
In fact some of the things he was doing in my eyes went against rewildling by planting trees etc...but i guess at the outset a little helping hand and head start is ok...the same as obviously re-introducing the large mammals which wouldt get back there naturally.
I was also a little thrown by the comment on the doc about "getting the public in"...in what sense?...i dont think true rewildling can have public access? in which case your right it does just become a safari park?..