In these hard economic times does it really make sense to spend £2m on bringing beavers back to a forest in Scotland where they became extinct many hundreds of years ago? To people who live and work in beaver country they are like Marmite – either loved or hated with no in-between. To some they’re a menace, destroying woodland and blocking streams and rivers; to others they’re one of nature’s heroes, creating spaces amid dense tree cover for the benefit of other creatures. Ten of them, imported from Norway, have been set free in the remote Knapdale area of mid-Argyll and for the next five years they will be closely monitored to assess their impact on the environment.
I must confess that for me it was a magical moment when, as dusk fell on a small loch and the mist rose from the limpid water, two of them swam close to my canoe. I’d been filming the project for Countryfile and had been told there was a good chance of seeing them. Now, I’ve heard that assurance many times on wildlife assignments and often been terribly disappointed (“You should have been here yesterday!” is the usual comment). So it was a real thrill to be one of the first to see wild beavers in what was once their natural habitat.
But we shouldn’t let emotion obstruct reality and rewilding, as it is called, is highly controversial. Plans to return wolves and bears to Scotland have already been abandoned. So I asked a couple of old friends with much experience of wild animals, Mark Carwardine and Michaela Strachan, for their verdict. Mark, soon to co-host a new BBC Two series on endangered species called Last Chance To See with Stephen Fry, put it like this: “In the game pick-a-stick, when you take out one stick all the others fall into a different pattern. If you try to put that stick back again things will have changed – and it’s the same with rewilding… the surroundings and circumstances will be different. I wouldn’t condemn it but there has to be a very good reason for doing it.” Michaela, who’s just finished filming Michaela’s Animal Roadshow for Five, thought the positives outweigh the negatives and the publicity created by reintroducing animals would benefit conservation in general. “Can we criticise other countries for their handling of animals like cheetahs and leopards if we
can’t cope with a few potentially difficult ones of our own?” she asked.
I wondered what you thought of schemes to reintroduce animals lost to our environment? Is it a worthwhile cause or a doomed folly.
Which side of the fence do you sit on?
Cav