Humans, being the victim of predation themselves until the invention of weapons still have this illogical fear of predators. Even now we are the apex predator ourselves, this fear is so built in to our collective memory that it's unlikely to change anytime soon.
Here in the Netherlands, there has been talk about reintroduction of wolves in the Veluwe region, but every time the subject gets brought up, huge numbers of people start protesting and writing letters against it, fearing for their children and domestic animals. In the meanwhile, because of lack of larger predators than foxes here, Wild boar numbers have soared to 7,000 last year, where the 1200 square kilometres of semi-wilderness in the Veluwe can only support up to 1200 (1 per sq. km) Nijmegen, where I live, on the edge of the Reichswald forest, the largest undevided woodland in Linksrheinisch Germany, has had stray boars entering the city last winter attacking dogs and digging up gardens, simply because there were too many boars in Reichswald forest. Eventually, one particulaly infamous boar needed to be shot after it had established itself in a city park, just 800 metres from the city centre. A taxidermist stuffed it, and he's now on display in the city museum.
As above example says, as much as humans try to control populations of wild animals, and the ecosystem as a whole, in the end it will fail anyways. Before the wall fell, the westernmost population of wolves in continental Europe was living in Southern Poland, in the Krkonose mountains. An offshoot of this pack migrated to Lausitz in Germany in 1996, after a few lone wolves were sighted here already in 1992-1993. with 2 separate confirmed packs of wolves living there by the turn of the century. As is common with wolves, when packs get too large, some male animals will get tossed out of the pack and start migrating themselves. In 2006, the first wolf sighting in former Western Germany was confirmed, in Lüneburger Heide. 2007 saw a wolf getting hit by a car in Süsel, north of Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein. 2008 saw a confirmed sighting of a wolf in Reinhardswald, near Kassel, Hessen, and an unconfirmed sighting near Ösnabruck, Niedersachsen. With the current speed of westward migration, scientists believe it's unevitable that a large pack of wolves will be fully established in the Netherlands, most likely the Veluwe region by 2015.
Offshoots of the Slovenian bear population have also spread into Germany from Austria, but this isn't going anywhere near the speed of the resettlement of Western Europe by their canine colleagues.
In the end, short of exterminating all large predators in Europe, and inevitably fucking up the ecosystem to such an extent that it won't support humans either in the long run, we have nothing to say about which predators we like and which ones we don't like. And to me, that's a very comforting thought.
Proterra - Oct 22, 2008 8:07 am - Voted 10/10
It's all psychologicalHumans, being the victim of predation themselves until the invention of weapons still have this illogical fear of predators. Even now we are the apex predator ourselves, this fear is so built in to our collective memory that it's unlikely to change anytime soon.
Here in the Netherlands, there has been talk about reintroduction of wolves in the Veluwe region, but every time the subject gets brought up, huge numbers of people start protesting and writing letters against it, fearing for their children and domestic animals. In the meanwhile, because of lack of larger predators than foxes here, Wild boar numbers have soared to 7,000 last year, where the 1200 square kilometres of semi-wilderness in the Veluwe can only support up to 1200 (1 per sq. km) Nijmegen, where I live, on the edge of the Reichswald forest, the largest undevided woodland in Linksrheinisch Germany, has had stray boars entering the city last winter attacking dogs and digging up gardens, simply because there were too many boars in Reichswald forest. Eventually, one particulaly infamous boar needed to be shot after it had established itself in a city park, just 800 metres from the city centre. A taxidermist stuffed it, and he's now on display in the city museum.
As above example says, as much as humans try to control populations of wild animals, and the ecosystem as a whole, in the end it will fail anyways. Before the wall fell, the westernmost population of wolves in continental Europe was living in Southern Poland, in the Krkonose mountains. An offshoot of this pack migrated to Lausitz in Germany in 1996, after a few lone wolves were sighted here already in 1992-1993. with 2 separate confirmed packs of wolves living there by the turn of the century. As is common with wolves, when packs get too large, some male animals will get tossed out of the pack and start migrating themselves. In 2006, the first wolf sighting in former Western Germany was confirmed, in Lüneburger Heide. 2007 saw a wolf getting hit by a car in Süsel, north of Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein. 2008 saw a confirmed sighting of a wolf in Reinhardswald, near Kassel, Hessen, and an unconfirmed sighting near Ösnabruck, Niedersachsen. With the current speed of westward migration, scientists believe it's unevitable that a large pack of wolves will be fully established in the Netherlands, most likely the Veluwe region by 2015.
Offshoots of the Slovenian bear population have also spread into Germany from Austria, but this isn't going anywhere near the speed of the resettlement of Western Europe by their canine colleagues.
In the end, short of exterminating all large predators in Europe, and inevitably fucking up the ecosystem to such an extent that it won't support humans either in the long run, we have nothing to say about which predators we like and which ones we don't like. And to me, that's a very comforting thought.
ojo - Mar 10, 2011 6:33 am - Voted 10/10
noticiasJust read this about the oso pardo in the Spanish Pyrenees.