To think the reintroduction of the wild Wolf to Belgium is insanity?

[HoppsAndSpice]

Wild Wolves have been reintroduced into Belgium over the last couple of weeks. This has led to the great dismay of the local farming community and outrage from the country as a whole. I am personally thinking about the many farmers who will lose cattle and sheep to the wolves and the impact it will have on their livelihood. Also the impact it will have on the wider ecosystem as a whole which could see various creatures such as rabbits, hares and other small mammals hunted in large quantities.

Wolves have a very inefficient digestive system as do most carnivores which means they need large quantities of meat to survive.

Its a very interesting one but I think this needs resolving urgently as a matter of urgency.

It must be noted that unlike crayfish they are not primarily in the water but it has been shown they can spend some time underwater like most creatures

Where has it been shown that Wolves go in for underwater foraging OP? That's a film clip I'd pay to see.
Or are they pearl diving to sell for ferry fares? ⛴️ 🤔

You may not like them but wolves are native to the UK. The last wolf in England was killed sometime in the 14th century and in Scotland, much later, in the 18th century. They’re just as native to the British Isles as pine martins.

They won't need to swim. According to "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase", they will simply trot along the Tunnel.

(Yes, I know it's a work of fiction, but so are most Youtube clips.)

The bears are too busy perfecting their porridge recipe.

Is the OP writing this as a spoof of anti-immigration campaigners?!

There are now a few wolves in Luxembourg - it's a story line in the crime drama Capitan on Netflix

Not what I was expecting to read on MN on a Tuesday morning 😀

Is this some kind of weird advert for a company who encourages people to eat grey squirrels and crayfish as in “eat them to beat them’?

www.wildmeat.co.uk/blogs/news/eat-them-to-beat-them-invasive-species

This thread is the purest shiny gold.
Thank you, OP. I am learning so much.

You and your friend Nigel Farage can form a vigilante organisation called WOLFWATCH to patrol the coastline and spot wolves sneaking into the UK.

Wolves are a non native species to Europe and the UK

Complete and utter bollocks. Humans hunted them to extinction in the UK, and almost the same in Europe (and the USA) in order to satisfy our greed for domesticated land. And in the process severely disrupted the eco- system. The biggest problem in the UK and Europe is humans, not about 20 protected wolves that have wondered into Belgium.

😂i can only imagine the drama!!

It's the Tasmanian Devils I'm worried about.

Sheep aren’t actually native to the uk though are they?

You are talking absolute nonsense. I live in Belgium and the wolves have been around for years

Wolves have an extreme ability to survive which is how they are growing and flourishing right now despite being hunted to near extinction.
Can’t have that much ability to survive if they were hunted to near extinction.

The OP must surely support pine martins. They do after all kill grey squirrels more than red one, thus bring down the introduction invasive squirrel.

I wouldn't be suprised if pine martins are members of the OP's group. Though I imagine they are hard to engage in meetings when the focus is on crayfish, so are problematic members.

There are two options:

1. There's a small collective of performance artists using MN as a canvas; or
2. The OP really is that bonkers.

It's now so commonplace to come across the Freemen of The Land, Global Reset, the Xenophobic Gammonati, and that ilk in real life that any performance piece has to go to ridiculous lengths of ridiculousness to even rate a mention.

This thread is wild 😂 (shit pun intended)

🐺 🐺 🐺

Are you sure you're ok OP? Do you need to see a doctor?

Well done on the crayfish.

I understand your concern and reluctance to see the crayfish/squirrel debacles repeated.

However there are no native wolf species for these wolves to pose a threat to - unlike the crayfish/squirrel situation, they're not a different species of wolf competing with a present native version.

Worrying about how farmers will feel is a completely different concern vs upsetting the economy. I'm not sure it matters that much how they feel if there are sound ecological reasons for doing it. Farmers may even be in support if it controls deer and rabbit populations.

Can you be more specific about the harm you're afraid will be caused?

It's the Bison twat again folks... I am waiting for the 'poof it's gone' notice from MNHQ.

Brilliant thread, OP. Thank you!

As far as anything is "native" to anywhere (because if you go back far enough the world was a very different place) the answer is yes, they are, but they looked very different to what you have in modern fields. They were already domesticated in the neolithic age in Britain, where, almost certainly, the iron age villagers gathered around the campfire whining about the marauding wolves (also native to Britain) whilst stroking their dogs (related to wolves) and wondering whether giraffes would ever take off as a meat product.

I know I shouldn't take this thread seriously now (too early in the morning and I foolishly didn't read all the OP's lunatic ramblings before my first post), but there are some of these "native sheep" still found in some areas of Scotland I am told, but if anyone happens to visit Castell Henllys Iron Age village in Wales they have some.

I’m only on page three and I’m dying to know more about the evil PERSONS propagating Wolf invasion, arranging transport etc.

The wolves just need to remarket themselves as dogs. Most of Mumsnet will then be queueing up to offer them loving homes and will indignantly deny any risk to children or small pets.

By the way, has anyone read the almost equally bonkers recent news stories saying that a dire shortage of decent Scottish wolves has led to us needing to force feed food bank users, prisoners, school children and anyone else with no choice with venison ragu?
(I'm paraphrasing slightly)
amp.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/17/deer-destroying-habitats-venison-uk-food-banks