Apart from the horror of the word, let’s pause to consider the sheer madness involved in reintroducing species which man deliberately wiped out long ago.
I like the article’s final line: ‘The Scottish government has said there are no plans to reintroduce large predators’.
But what about fish? The little Sturgeon is quite enough, thank you; not to mention the untameable Salmond.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Ps this is of course just me as usual casting comments into the aether, where allegedly cherished charioteers hear but never speak. What a bunch of monkeys!🙊👎
I think that the beavers were wiped out for their fur, Janus. Never watched a western where the trapper spends months in the wild and then turns up at the trading post with a load of beaver skins?
Ah yes, but farmers hated them for their dam(n) dams!
I think that it is a great idea Janus. It would be good to see the extinct species back in Britain. Start with wolves, wild boar but it shouldn’t stop there. Continue with the dinosaurs, starting small with a few microceratus or wannanosaurus but always thinking big and progressing up to a Brachiosaurus.
Once we get our first Brachy up and running I would vote for him to be in the SNP.
😃
Just read the article. Frankly not impressed by the general tone of it all. They obviously haven’t studied other international efforts in this field. Beavers have been re-introduced in various projects in several places in the USA..
Creatures often create their own habitats. It is presumptuous to invoke so called human superiority in re engineering landscape. Generally the best option being to BUTT OUT and leave them to it!
Beavers particularly will change the landscape, generally for the better. It has been found here that the series of linked ponds and marsh habitats they create act as water reservoirs delaying run off. Two uses there. 1. Minimises flooding downstream and 2. Available water for agricultural irrigation. Several areas of Oregon and N California have been able to reintroduce small scale agriculture courtesy of the beaver schemes in arid areas given up on some time ago through lack of water.
Wolves were reintroduced to large areas of the NW quartile of the USA. The usual bleats about having cattle eaten etc etc. Very little of which came to pass. Seemingly they prefer deer! It is interesting to note that National forests do not allow human habitation. You can pack in on horseback. There are no roads. Humans are only transitory visitors. No felling, no forest management. If it burns it burns.. They only fight fires that threaten settlements on the outskirts of the forests. Needless to say with bears and wolves as the top predators the wildlife seems to be doing just fine. Balance is achieved and variety of both flora and fauna appear to have been enhanced. One suspects that most of the world would be a damn sight better if there were less humans and they were less intrusive upon the landscape.
As far as extinct species being reintroduced in Britain. I think they might start with W.A.S.P.’s first!
So all in all, I don’t think of it as madness, just a small attempt to reassert some balance in an increasingly stupid world heading for a probably terminal problem. Self inflicted and justly so. We deserve the same fate we inflicted on other species, ie wipe out.
CO, that’s fine out in the backwoods but in overpopulated little places like home it’s mindless.
A lot of the Uk is remarkably empty. The Scottish highlands, rural Wales and parts of the North have virtually no population. Can we introduce wolves back into Leicester or Bradford? Strikes me as an excellent idea. Plenty of food supply but how do you get turban remains out of their teeth? Wouldn’t want the poor wolves to choke now would we?
Various places have otters again, Pembroke and Devon come to mind.