Category: Reintroduction

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The Colorado population has voted to reintroduce wolves, and how does this square with Trumps delisting of wolves in the USA

At the end of last year, the people of Colorado have voted to reintroduce wolves to the state by 2023. It should be noted that a wolf has been collared in the state in the last few months. It came from a neighbouring state, and therefore clearly wolves would return on their own eventually.

The proposal squeaked across the line with 50.4% of the vote. Now, this decision is complicated by Trumps foolish move to delist wolves throughout the USA, despite their current position. Estimates of the number of wolves in the USA when settlers arrived, range from 250,000 up to 2 million. Even if we assume the low end of the range, the current wolf population of the lower 48 states in the USA is just 6000, a number that we can safely say is at the most, roughly 2% of historical numbers.

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Iberian Lynx continues to recover

Back in 2002 there were only 94 Iberian lynx left in the wild. This wild cat had declined for a number of reasons, unfortunately all down to humans.

Wild Iberian lynx: tourism visits to see these cats have increased over the years.

The main threat to Iberian lynx was the loss of their main prey. Back in 1952 a doctor, fed up of rabbits overrunning his garden, introduced Myxomatosis. Myxomatosis is an illness, which kills rabbits. Within 2 years this illness had spread across Spain, and eventually went on to reduce the population by 95%.

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Wildcats set to return to southern England 150 years since their extinction in England and Wales

Once common across the whole of the UK, they were hunted to extinction. Currently, just a handful remain in Scotland. While interbreeding between wildcats and feral domestic cats is normally rare, in the current situation feral cats outnumber wildcats 1000 to one, and as such the wildcat is essentially extinct.

Could wildcats roam an English county once again – as early as next year?

The farmer who is looking to reintroduce them, currently has 6 pairs, which he is hoping to increase to 150 individuals and to start reintroducing perhaps as early as next year.

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Pine martens released near Bangor, Wales

Despite the fact that British citizens have done much good work towards to conservation of wildlife and wilderness in the world, we have been less successful in the UK. Having largely eradicated a small arboreal predator from much of the UK, we then decided to introduce the grey squirrel from the USA.

Bangor pine marten – 4 were reintroduced a year ago, and seem to be doing well

Spending more time on the ground, and being far less agile than their red smaller cousins, grey squirrels cannot coexist with pine martens.

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A second attempt to introduce lynx into Northumberland is being proposed

The UK has been predator free (at least large predators that can threaten humans and have to regularly kill to survive) for roughly 300 years. Wolves disappeared around 300 years ago, bears are thought to have gone extinct around 1,000 years ago and lynx are thought that have gone extinct about 1,300 years ago.

Wild lynx can be incredibly impressive when seen, but most of the time they are not seen even by though whose job means they spend their time in the same habitat. Not that people don’t try, lynx are charismatic animals and people will spend much time trying to get a glimpse
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Transfrontier parks – allowing wildlife to exist closer to how it did before humans arrived

In Africa it is becoming increasingly common for national parks to be declared on both sides of a border. This allows the protected area to be vastly larger than either country could succeed in, on its own. This is important because many of the mammals that live in Africa need a lot of space and live at low densities. Without transfrontier parks it would be too expensive to protect a large enough area to support populations of animals such as wild dog and cheetah. In an ideal world this is a relatively simple solution, however as with everything it isn’t often that simple. With war and famine and other problems the animals could suddenly become less secure in one country than another. Continue reading “Transfrontier parks – allowing wildlife to exist closer to how it did before humans arrived”

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