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01 January 1999
Bring Back our Wild Beasts
By Peter Clarke

Scottish Natural Heritage has agreed to reintroduce the beaver to four locations in Scotland with the help of a famous Speyside distiller which is acting as sponsor. We lost the beaver in the 13th Century due to its fur being useful and its glands being regarded as a medicinal necessity. I argue that the beaver should only be the beginning - I have a shopping list of 12 other species I want to see roaming wild in Scotland again.

I urge the whisky industry to adopt or sponsor a different creature and incur the modest costs of reintroducing them. Whisky partly depends on the romance of its wild and remote locations. If the glens had our ancient animals back, this would enhance the mystery of the malts.

Everyone agrees the return of the capercallie and the osprey has been a blessing. The capercallie was brought back from Scandinavia a hundred years ago sponsored by an Aberdeenshire landowner with distilling interests. Mr Bruce Fellowes Gordon said it was the best memorial he could have hoped for. The more variety we have in our wild life the better, I could give my argument an ecologically respectable gloss, but what excites me is the thought of a chance encounter with a bison or an elk deep in a Scottish forest.

In the beginning there was The Barrel. . .

Some creatures like the wolf linger in our folk memory. The last wild Scottish wolf was hunted in the 18th century. Many of the beasties on my list are long lost from awareness. Archaeology is now so sophis-ticated we know with con?dence some animals shared the land with us before farming and hunting obliterated them. In every case they survive in corners of mainland Europe. Could a better pairing be made than with Badenoch, both where the last creatures lingered and after the medieval marauder still remembered as the Wolf of Badenoch?

Who would deny the Atlantic walrus would enhance our shores. They are gentle things munching seaweed and molluscs.

The European bison was down to a population of 2 dozen in Poland after the war, but they have been allowed to flourish. They used to roam Scotland. They are amiable creatures, shy and quiet. The North American bison inhabits the open plains, but its European cousin is a forest dweller. The wild cattle of prehistoric Europe exist still. I say our landscape would be enhanced if we had a few herds of these placid animals free in the countryside. The countryside around Benromach distillery would be perfect for bison.

There are other ungulates we could enjoy on our hills. The reindeer is almost back in Inverness-shire, but the ones there are semi-domestic. The elk has not been heard in a Scottish glen for 2000 years. Let us have them back. The elk's horns used to be in the arms of Elgin. Let Elgin whisky assist the elk's return.

There will be a cry of opposition. These animals will endanger humans and degrade farms. I say a little bit of danger invests the mountains with magic. Danger is part of the mystery. We have plenty of land - thousands of square miles of no utility in the West. Let the wild goat, perhaps even ibexes be liberated on the scree.

The wolf simply is not dangerous. The echo of our imaginations is of the rabid wolf. Wolves would be actively useful culling the excessive deer. We may lose a few sheep but nature loses hundreds of thousands of sheep. Who needs more sheep? A pack of wolves howling against the moon over Morvern would be spine tingling. The baa of more subsidised sheep has no delight.

The European bear, I have to agree, could be a terrorist. Yet tourists do not avoid the Alps for fear of bears. The Italian mountains are enhanced by their bears, as are the Pyrenees. I'll accept a compromise. Bring the bears back to Rhum or Muck or Islay. An island can be bought and rendered free of infestation by farmers. Bunnahabhain seems right.

The wild boar add to the forests of France. Cornered or wounded they can be dangerous but they keep the woodlands pleasantly diverse. A few hundred wild boar set free in the gaunt ranks of the Forestry Commission might give life where there is none. I am not too fastidious about hunting. Once they are established they can be made into lovely sausages. I always rate a tumbler of Brora.

I am not asking for aliens to be inserted into our fauna. My list are merely absentees. We do have aliens - the rabbit, the pheasant and the sika deer and the grey squirrel are strangers that have gone wild. We even had wallabies on the moors of Renfrew.

The farmers will be outraged. Splendid. Who needs farmers? Bring back our wild beasts and sell torrents more whisky.

My list of applicants were all residents after the Ice Age. We should be hospitable. The lemming, lost before the Romans would enjoy Sutherland. Pulteney on the cliffs of Caithness seems a good match.

There are some creatures I will admit to doubting. The wolverine, a sort of giant stoat is so aggressive and charmless we perhaps need only have it back on Canna or Rockall. It is not friendly, but it was Scottish, a sort of mammalian football hooligan.

The lynx, Europe's small mountain lion, makes our wild cat look like a tame pussy. A few lynxes returned to Ardamurchan or Kintail would enhance the estates. I leave to the experts whether we would have the Spanish or Scandinavian subspecies. Linkwood tastes as intelligent as the lynx looks.

The beaver is proof of my argument. It has been reintroduced throughout Europe, even in heavily populated Holland. It has been acclaimed wherever it lives. Ben Dearg would profit from local beavers.

There are some other candidates. The mouflon, a sort of ancient sheep, could be brought back. The last mammal in Europe to be noticed by science - it was only identified in 1811 - is the Desmon a sort of giant mole. It is doubtful it would find a sponsor.

My own favourites are in the water - one mammal, one fish. Who would deny the Atlantic walrus would enhance our shores. They are gentle things munching seaweed and molluscs. The last Scottish walrus was shot in 1846 - off Bressay - he was called Eric. We have an excessive population of grey seals. Let them be replaced by the finest moustaches in nature. The Lewis chessmen and other artifacts from the shadows of history were made of walrus ivory. Let us have them back. The walrus is my favourite lost mammal. Let us have them back on Ailsa Craig and the Bass Rock. Talisker seems a good match.

In every case I could argue an economic advantage. The more we can improve the experience of visiting Scotland the more prosperous we will be. Yet the momentum of my argument is not the balance sheet - I win easily - it is to give soul to our wild places. Without the wild beasts our spirits are impoverished. Scotland's, and therefore whisky's, reputation would gain with these beasts back in the countryside.

I have not mentioned my supreme nomination. He may still be here. Yet he is so rare he is not in the textbooks. He is the most noble of all the creatures of Scotland. A few stray ones still turn up in our seas and even fewer slink silently up the estuaries. The sturgeon - the angler's fantasy. They belong technically to The Crown, but The Crown has done nothing to protect a species more amazing than the princely salmon. If the Loch Ness Monster is no more than a myth it is a 15ft sturgeon. The largest Scottish sturgeon was 1,000 kilogrammes.

Bring back the sturgeon. It only needs quiet clean water. Within a few years we could astonish the world with Scotland's caviar. What distiller would deserve such a refined link. It needs an auction but I think Glenmorangie has the dignity.

The farmers will be outraged. Splendid. Who needs farmers? Bring back our wild beasts and sell torrents more whisky.

Peter Clarke is a freelance teetotaller and has a regular column in the Sunday Times."

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