IN response to Bernard Zonfrillo (Letters, May 21), I feel it is necessary to ascertain which species should be reintroduced and who is the final arbiter.
Should we add the lemming, lynx, elk, brown bear, pika, antelope, wolverine and, just for good measure, the great white pelican to name but a few. Are we to go further back and try to reintroduce crocodiles if global warming does indeed take hold?
But why stop there? There is pressure to re-establish the ancient Caledonian forest but who selects to which point in time to which it should be returned? Perhaps to be really accurate we should return the forest to the coverage it had 1,000 years ago or possibly 5,000 years ago when Scotland was completely covered by trees. But there are people and dwellings in the way. Never mind we can easily remove them for the greater good of the historical reconstruction.
My point is that everything evolves and the environment along with every other part of our land changes to suit present conditions and pressures. Any attempt to force change is artificial and merely reduces our country to a museum frozen in some mythical lost time. Is it coincidence that those who promote reintroductions are almost without exception city dwellers who will not be directly impacted by their actions?
David Stubley
22 Templeton Crescent,
Prestwick.
THE idea of releasing lynx and wolves in the Highlands is appalling as the whole area is used by thousands of people at all times of the year ("Springwatch host calls for wolves to be reintroduced to Scotland", The Herald, May 19, and Letters, May 20 and 21). Many who use the Highlands for leisure also sleep outdoors and would obviously be at risk with those predators loose.
It is spurious to say these animals previously lived here because we have evolved a lifestyle that manages very well without them for hundreds of years and there can be no justification for reintroducing them now.
If all those totty-headed idealistic minorities have their way they are in danger of introducing yet another species of wild animal - in the form of myself and others who wish to preserve the Scottish countryside for people and farming I would like to see how their ideas would go down if they tried to reintroduce these animals in the south of England.
Alan A Stewart,
Rose Cottage,
Woodside Place,
Dunlop.
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