Return of the Wolf.

[hiker]

Interesting article about the return of the wolves here


I know there are a small number pf wolves in the mountains of Andalucia in southern Spain.

It will be interesting to see how people will react to this development in central Europe.

I saw that in Spain there is an effort to protect the wolves and the Iberian Lynx by freeing rabbits in the areas they hunt in.
Brilliant idea I thought. The common rabbit used to be the mainstay of many of our predatory animals but myxaytosis not only destryed the wild rabbit population but the predator population too.

Should we protect livestock from predators like wolves or Lynx or should we give them free reign and try to encourage them by releaseing rabbits back into the environment?

[Bogwarrior]

There is insufficient woodland in Ireland to accomodate wolves or wild boars etc. We have a pathetic amount of trees per km2. Even Israel has a greater ratio of tree covering per km2 than Ireland. Unbelievable considering trees grow faster here than in most of Europe.
I'd love to see more land put aside for native woodland, and the eventual return of more wildlife.

[hiker]

There is insufficient woodland in Ireland to accomodate wolves or wild boars etc. We have a pathetic amount of trees per km2. Even Israel has a greater ratio of tree covering per km2 than Ireland. Unbelievable considering trees grow faster here than in most of Europe.
I'd love to see more land put aside for native woodland, and the eventual return of more wildlife.

I agree. We really did make a dogs bollix of it by cutting down all the trees. But as the story shows, nature is making a comeback. We are undoubtedly more enlightened than we were 100 years ago.
The Andalucia region of Spain, which is just a tad smaller than Ireland, has several hundred wolves living there.
There are brown bears in the Ortava National Park in the Spanish Pyrenees and in the Austrian Alps.

I'm fascinated as to how we propose to live alongside these animals. Do we pen them in?
It does not work in Calafornia/Colerado because the wolves and indeed the bear just go wherever they feel like.

If we (I say we in the European sense, not just the Irish sense) let them roam, what is to be the ettiqutte between the wild and the human environment?

[popper]

There's a chap in Wicklow sells wolf pups as pets. Surely only a matter of time before some of them escape and return to the wild to eat small girls' grannies.

[Respvblica]

There is insufficient woodland in Ireland to accomodate wolves or wild boars etc. We have a pathetic amount of trees per km2. Even Israel has a greater ratio of tree covering per km2 than Ireland. Unbelievable considering trees grow faster here than in most of Europe.
I'd love to see more land put aside for native woodland, and the eventual return of more wildlife.

I agree. We really did make a dogs bollix of it by cutting down all the trees. But as the story shows, nature is making a comeback. We are undoubtedly more enlightened than we were 100 years ago.
The Andalucia region of Spain, which is just a tad smaller than Ireland, has several hundred wolves living there.
There are brown bears in the Ortava National Park in the Spanish Pyrenees and in the Austrian Alps.

I'm fascinated as to how we propose to live alongside these animals. Do we pen them in?
It does not work in Calafornia/Colerado because the wolves and indeed the bear just go wherever they feel like.

If we (I say we in the European sense, not just the Irish sense) let them roam, what is to be the ettiqutte between the wild and the human environment?

Well we'd need a fairly large national park for that and not just a few acres here or half a hill there. Anyway I'd love to see the day when those wild animals were reintroduced. They were native once until they were caused to go extinct. The woodlands should also be the native deciduous trees of the oak, beach and ash rather than the fast growing conifers. First thing would be to get our percentage of woodland up to EU levels, although with the price of land as it is it could be expensive to do it now.

[Wolverine]

Even Israel has a greater ratio of tree covering per km2 than Ireland

Bloody hell that's unbelievable! Time for Coillte to get the finger out I think.

[hiker]

Even Israel has a greater ratio of tree covering per km2 than Ireland

Bloody hell that's unbelievable! Time for Coillte to get the finger out I think.

Our lads actually include "Linear Forest"

Linear forest are the trees that grow by the side of the road. Makes up about 2% of the overall total.

[FutureLabourLeader]

There is insufficient woodland in Ireland to accomodate wolves or wild boars etc. We have a pathetic amount of trees per km2. Even Israel has a greater ratio of tree covering per km2 than Ireland. Unbelievable considering trees grow faster here than in most of Europe.
I'd love to see more land put aside for native woodland, and the eventual return of more wildlife.

Absolutely agree

[The OD]

There's a chap in Wicklow sells wolf pups as pets. Surely only a matter of time before some of them escape and return to the wild to eat small girls' grannies.

Small girls grannies aside, surely selling wolves should be outlawed? They are pack animals and selling them as 'lone wolves' is not only dangerous but cruel methinks?

Wolves get a lot of bad press but in the end they are only animals trying to survive in a human world. I cant see them being reintroduced in Ireland, too small and developed at this stage. Sad, because they are beautiful animals.