A lupine conundrum

Hello dearest inside back cover readers – and a happy new year to you. By way of a post-festive period pick-you-up, we thought you could do with a little teaser to get your synapses lubricated.

Ready? OK, here goes: Which of the following is the odd one out: a dragon, a wolf, a stegosaurus or a puffin? Hint – only one of them has recently been voted by the Scottish public as a species worthy of saving with a conservation effort.

Easy, right? It’ll be the only species listed which meets the criteria of residing in Scotland and, you know, currently being alive. Which leaves only one answer, but amazingly enough the answer isn’t a puffin, it’s a wolf.

That’s right, when asked which species of wildlife they were most worried about, the respondents of a survey commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage voted: deer, red squirrel, Scottish wild cat and, yes, wolf. A species that became extinct in Scotland during the 1700s.

Democracy is often considered the crowning glory of a civilisation, yet there are times when decisions via committee should be whole heartedly discouraged. Thankfully the survey was never intended as a tool to help conservationists decide which species to focus on. SNH say the survey is held on a regular basis to gauge public awareness of Scotland's natural world. Presumably one of the major messages would be they need to do more work on the public awareness of Scotland’s natural world.

Yet perhaps the Scottish public know something we don’t (very likely, you’ll no doubt be thinking). The reintroduction of these magnificent beasts (…wolves, not the Scottish public) has been seriously mooted on several occasions. In 1999, Dr Martyn Gorman, senior lecturer in zoology at Aberdeen University and vice chairman of the UK Mammal Society called for a reintroduction of wolves to the Scottish Highlands in order to deal with the then 350,000 red deer damaging young trees in commercial forests. Scottish National Heritage themselves even considered re-establishing colonies of wolves, but shelved the idea following an outcry from sheep farmers. Most recently Paul Lister, a wealthy Scottish land owner hoped to fence off 50,000 acres and bring back wolves and bears into his sprawling Sutherland estate.

Perhaps the recent survey results are an indication of thawing resistance to the idea. You have to wonder though; how happy would people be to reside alongside something which could, theoretically, kill and eat them? Overly dramatic…us? Perhaps – but this certainly one of the reasons for the animals original eradication. And eradicated they were – violently so. Indeed wolves cut such a swathe through the cattle herds of Sutherland, that in 1577 James VI made it compulsory to hunt wolves three times a year. Compulsory!

And so what are we to make of the Scottish publics’ apparent intent to conserve the wolf – a simple mistake? Or maybe, just maybe, a subtle lobbying effort designed to bolster the reintroduction movement; an olive branch from one species to another in an attempt to make amends for previous maltreatment.

OK, OK most likely it was a mistake, but we are still hung over from the festivities so you’ll have to excuse our flights of fancy.