Cave March 2005

This marvellously close encounter of a castorine kind did not take place on the Tay or indeed any other Scottish river, of course, but on the distant Berezina in Belarus. However, I was delighted to read a very recent newspaper account, which suggested that at long last the plan to reintroduce beavers to Scotland may be going to move forward, at least as far as a trial phase, in Knapdale in Argyll. This is not before time. There are a few doom and gloomsters who predict that the return of the beaver will mean the end of forestry and farming as we know it, of course, not to mention fishing. There is scant evidence to back them, though, and I for one hope that Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) will at last get their skates on and approve this trial. With any luck, in a few years it will not be necessary to go abroad to see one of the most magnificent mammals that we used to have, once again roaming free here.
The question of whether it is right to reintroduce species that have been extinct in Scotland for years is a thorny one and hotly debated. The osprey reintroduced itself, as it were, and thanks to the RSPB’s Loch Garten observation hide and massive publicity, became famous – and also very successful, with many pairs now breeding annually throughout the land. However both the red kite and the sea eagle required human help to re-establish themselves. This was fair enough as it was man (and a few women too) who blasted them to extinction in the first place, in the days when anything with a hooked beak, and a lot more besides, was accursed by every keeper in the land, aided and abetted by that strange creature, the egg-collector.
Both these reintroductions have drawn down the wrath of a small and ignorant minority, who still seem to believe, erroneously, that the presence of these birds will diminish the profits they will make from their farms and estates. Fortunately cases of poisoning or other deliberate destruction have been few but I cannot resist mentioning one well-publicised accident that occurred to a red kite in Wales, where a small number always maintained a toehold. It collided, fatally, with – a wind turbine!
Much more contentious are proposals by two estate owners in the Highlands to reintroduce wolves, bears and lynx. Wolves have such terrible reputations that no doubt there are already people expecting babies to be snatched from prams in Achnashoogle and Inversnitch if any such project should come to pass. Much more serious are the concerns of sheep farmers, because a tender chunk of lamb would certainly be on Mrs Wolf’s shopping list. It would probably be on Mrs Lynx’s too, though not on Mrs Brown-Bear’s.
Of course, the Highlands were not a sheep-based economy in the days of the wolf, but a cattle-based one. Caora Mor, the Great Sheep, only came in in quantity at the time when the Clearances were taking place. Wolves ate deer, rather than cattle, and much else besides. Nevertheless, no-one seems to have regarded the death of the last one as a matter to grieve over, at the time. The shy lynx was probably never so numerous as to cause more than local trouble by taking a lamb or a hen, but would have been regarded as a menace all the same. The brown bear, still relatively common in pockets in Europe, in countries like Slovenia, is a shy fellow and apart from a female with cubs, no threat to anyone. The biggest problem likely to face reintroduced bears would be lack of suitable habitat – a situation that is at least partly true for wolf and lynx too. We simply no longer have much truly wild country left; indeed some would argue we don’t have any.
There are two other reintroductions that I have not mentioned. First was the reindeer herd brought to the Cairngorms by Mikkel Utsi in the 50’s, still there and thriving. Secondly was the capercaillie, which was re-established from Swedish stock in the 1830’s after having become extinct in 1785. Unfortunately recent habitat changes have once again placed the ‘horse of the woods’ as the Gaelic has it, under threat.
I think it may be a very long time before we see wild wolves roaming the hills. However, the prospect of having a beaver pop up in front of you when strolling along a river bank is becoming a possibility. And a welcome one.

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There were lots of other things on my notepad for inclusion this month, ranging from the continued and grossly unjust 29-year long incarceration of American Indian Leonard Peltier for a murder he did not commit – follow the links on http://users.skynet.be.kola/lpforum.htm – to the so-called population crisis in Scotland.
They ranged also from my first sighting of oystercatchers for the year on the 16th (though some were seen on the 12th), to the Children Act, so far only applicable to England and Wales, whereby all children entering school will also enter a database giving personal details…link on http://www.arch-ed.org/ Very scary stuff.

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And a tail-piece: “Wind farms are an expensive and inefficient way of generating sustainable energy, according to a study from Germany, the world’s leading producer of wind energy…”