Sounds intriguing. I remember an advocate of reintroducing wolves in Scotland, in part to address the red deer epidemic. They said something along the lines of, in the time it takes humans to set up a working party, reform, reestablish terms of reference, and produce a report which sits on a shelf while various interests fight, a pack of wolves will have just gone and done some culling.
Yes, that's very much what I've read too. We have way, way too many deer in the UK, and we either act as the apex predator, hunt them and turn them into tasty venison, or we bring in a carnivore or two that can do the same. I've heard conservationists saying that we need to be culling 50% of the deer population every year, the numbers are so out of hand.
The big problem with deer is that they eat new buds and shoots, so they stop flowers and saplings from growing, which affects the insect population and that, of course, then affects birds, bats and other insectivores. So we really do need to find a way to deal with the deer.
I'd invite every meat eater to stop thinking of deer as cute, and start thinking of them as delicious. Venison's also healthier than steaks, so that's another plus!
Sounds intriguing. I remember an advocate of reintroducing wolves in Scotland, in part to address the red deer epidemic. They said something along the lines of, in the time it takes humans to set up a working party, reform, reestablish terms of reference, and produce a report which sits on a shelf while various interests fight, a pack of wolves will have just gone and done some culling.
Yes, that's very much what I've read too. We have way, way too many deer in the UK, and we either act as the apex predator, hunt them and turn them into tasty venison, or we bring in a carnivore or two that can do the same. I've heard conservationists saying that we need to be culling 50% of the deer population every year, the numbers are so out of hand.
The big problem with deer is that they eat new buds and shoots, so they stop flowers and saplings from growing, which affects the insect population and that, of course, then affects birds, bats and other insectivores. So we really do need to find a way to deal with the deer.
I'd invite every meat eater to stop thinking of deer as cute, and start thinking of them as delicious. Venison's also healthier than steaks, so that's another plus!