Nature-loving Germans are experiencing some serious problems with their rewilding programmes. Wolves, bears and otters are wreaking havoc across large areas of the country.
Many politicians and agenda-driven conservationists choose to ignore or gloss over the inevitable – that uncontrolled predators at the top of the food chain will cause serious problems to wildlife and commerce.
It was the disembowelling of a pet pony belonging to Ursula Von Leyen, President of the EU Commission, that shone a bright light on the subject. It’s now got serious.
According to a report in The Times, research shows that state-owned fish breeders in Germany have been losing up to 90 per cent of their stock to otters, and that 600 farms have gone bust over the past two years alone. It’s got so bad that the State of Bavaria now issues licences to manage otters and wolves. Their numbers are great, and their legacy damaging.
The reintroduction of wolves to the Rockies in North America is often used as a happy success story of wildlife management and the benefit to other species but, like almost all things natural, it’s site-specific.
What seems to have been forgotten is the highly populated and domesticated world of Europe is a very different proposition to the wilderness of Canada.
As custodians of our waterways, angling clubs, fisheries and – obviously – anglers are conservationists and nature lovers, so let’s make it absolutely clear here.
A cull is not the answer, nor the request. Simply an understanding that for every rewilding action there will be a consequence somewhere further down the line.
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