Should wolves be reintroduced to Ireland?

Markcheese · 06-03-2023 10:16pm

A pack of Wolves need a fairly large territory , the sparser the prey the larger the territory ,

You'd need a good few packs to get any genetic diversity, so it couldn't just be introduce a pack into Donegal , you'd prob need minimum 8 or 10 packs throughout the country ,

There are plenty of deer at the moment as prey ,( if they were avoiding humans and their domesticated animals ) which could lead to a boom in wolf packs , then as the deer and bunnies got scarcer the packs would have to go looking for farmed animals ..

cruizer101 · 06-03-2023 10:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120315917#Comment_120315917

Video on potential of reintroducing lynx into Scotland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND3GTG52kJA7

Whilst I like the idea of reintroducing wolves we just don't have the wilderness. There is at times talk of it in Scotland where there have vastly more wilderness than us but even there chances are slim enough. The lynx has more of a chance I would say as its a more solitary creature and far more wary of humans.

embraer170 · 07-03-2023 8:17pm

I am really not getting the population / lack of countryside argument. Wolves somehow survive in the Netherlands, Belgium and very industrial and populated North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. There's absolutely no real non farmed wilderness in the Netherlands, NRW and Belgium (red circle in the below image).

Population density per km2

NRW: 524 (Germany as a whole: 240)

Belgium: 383

The Netherlands: 508

Ireland: 72

Country illustration through light population:

Markcheese · 10-03-2023 10:32pm

Ireland is an island , so the population of any wild animal is entirely restricted to Ireland,

a small population can find a space in Holland or Belgium and not have to stop at border control if they want to head somewhere else ..

Fathom · 18-03-2023 5:41pm

Wolves were reintroduced into parts of several states across the pond. Yellowstone was reportedly eco-balanced improved. Farmers in Colorado have complained about wolves killing livestock.

Insect Overlord · 19-03-2023 12:34am

I've been following Eoghan Daltún on Twitter for about a year now, and while I once would have agreed with the "Nay!" side of this argument, I now have to agree that wolves or other large predators should be part of the solution. Unchecked grazing by deer, sheep, etc in Cork and Kerry is ruining whatever is left of the natural forest environment.

Much of Connacht could also benefit from gradual re-wilding. I doubt there's massive money in sheep farming in Galway and Mayo, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong if anyone has the data.

iniscealtra · 19-03-2023 8:40am

There are people everywhere in Ireland and livestock. Could be problematic. Belgiums population is something like 96% urban I believe. Deer are increasing but eating more venison would be a good solution.

embraer170 · 19-03-2023 10:14am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120375002#Comment_120375002

Take a look at the European light pollution map. The Belgian countryside has quite a lot of housing, farms, etc.

Emblematic · 19-03-2023 4:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120374799#Comment_120374799

However there's only sheep grazing on that land because farmers run sheep there. They are not wild sheep that need to be checked by an apex predator. If overgrazing was seen as the problem the sheep would simply be rounded up and removed from the land.

RetroEncabulator · 01-08-2023 9:58am

We need to focus on stuff we can actually do. Ireland does not have enough habit or prey for those wolves to survive. You’d be condemning them either conflict with humans or starvation.

What we should be doing is rewilding, letting the flora get back to nature in more areas and limiting sheep and artificially introduced deer from munching their way though all of it.

Getting our insect and bird populations back to some kind of healthy levels would be a better goal than trying to introduce an apex predator that would just end up facing the extreme struggles.

This is very much putting the cart before horse stuff! Ireland simply doesn’t have the habits to support them and we are in a far more extreme situation in terms of lack of nature than most of the continent. We are basically just coast to coast managed farm land that is pretty and green looking, but it’s as natural as a golf course, just with a less manicured aesthetic.

Ultimanemo · 29-08-2023 7:13pm

https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/highlights-from-the-hard-shoulder/should-wolves-be-reintroduced-to-ireland

Should wolves be reintroduced to Ireland?

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