THERE is a lively debate going on in Scotland about restoring the country's extinct mammals. It is the same argument as surrounded the sea eagle, red kite or capercaillie.
The candidate species are the boar, bear, bison, musk ox, moose, beaver, wolverine, lynx, walrus and, perhaps most challenging, the wolf. |
Yet the argument seems to me to omit one large element - the business potential to be derived from these creatures' restoration to the Scottish hills.
We banned fox hunting at the behest of Lord Watson of Invergowrie but I see a lucrative potential in boar hunting. In France this is a sizeable and profitable market. La Chasse is a combination of hunting, sporting and hospitality in the forests of France. It could be so again in Scotland.
The wild boar that have either escaped from farms or been released by enthusiasts will breed into menacing numbers rapidly. They need to be hunted to contain their numbers. They make great sausages. Humans are their only predators.
Scotland's rural economy is fragile. It is also too dependent on subsidies.
As the EU restricts these fountains of cash, a post-sheep landscape will re-establish itself - birch, ash, elder, rowan, juniper, oak and, of course, Scots pine will flourish again.
Yet these hills' appeal would be enhanced far more if visitors could encounter moose or beaver or bison or lynx. Their presence would transform the personality of the islands and glens where they roamed.
This is not mere theory. Across the continent, the missing species have been restored. I know of no adverse experiences or evidence.
People flock to the Pyrenees, the Dolomites and the Alps in the hope of an encounter. Romania's biggest growth industry is eco-tourism. So is Poland's. In the vast Bialowieza Forest, the European bison, long thought extinct, has survived. Its numbers have been built up again. They can be seen and enjoyed mooching at the Highland Wildlife Park at Aviemore.
I am not proposing captive animals. Initially perhaps they could be enclosed - but the commercial appeal, as well as the magic, is in having them wild and free again.
Take a remote community like Unst, still at a loss after the withdrawal of the RAF. Imagine if its shores had walrus basking and if its freshwater lochs had sturgeon again. Unst caviare could be a prize. It would also be a sustainable income.
On the outer fringes of the eco-enthusiasts who want to restore the animals that man obliterated in t