A Few bits on Scottish Environmental Conservation

[Alan H]

Jock, "Dubious human activities connected to badgers"....this sound intriguing and , well....probably disgusting. Badger fights?

I'm intrigue'd to know that you saw all that on one single drive back to your home, Jock. So the truth about some species, at least is somewhere between the alarm bells sounding ultimate destruction, and those who shrug and don't care. Actually I would be surprised if Osprey were endangered. They're relatively hardy, can hunt over all sorts of open water and are pretty tolerant of human presence. After all, I see them all the time on Puget Sound, and watched one take a fish out of the sound not 50 feet from my kayak, last summer. I would assume the Scottish osprey are much the same.

Introducing roe and red deer. Yeah, what on earth is the point? In fact, how can you "re-introduce" them, when they're all over the place? (or so I understand).

Seriously, you have boar around your land? I wonder if the primary question about re-introducing boar is further south, rather than the highlands. Here in California the wild pig population is positively booming. Hog/Boar, and there's lots of interbreeding between the native wild boar, introduced (and aggressive European boar) and escaped pigs .... is the #2 hunted species, right behind white-tailed deer. Despite 3,000 + boar being taken in California last year, the population is doing just fine, probably something like 30,000+. Hunting is NOT...NOT the enemy of all species!

Just curious, Jock, have you ever seen a wildcat?

You saw a pine martin? I'm flabbergasted. We have them in the Sierra Nevada, different sub-species but basically a very similar animal and while they are not "rare" they are very secretive and in 30 years of backpacking up in the mountains, I've seen three.

I think this *does it*. I am going for an extended hike in the Cairgorms when I get over there. If the place is crawling with animals like this, I want to SEE them.