An amazing couple of days encountering an Otter locally. Both times it had a Kingfisher in tow, using the Otter to disturb smaller fish for it to catch.
Just one of the delights of living here, with these on our doorstep. You can find more about our project here: wild-finca.kit.com/04ed3accb0
The side of Wild Finca you don’t see much of. After evicting the human hunter from the land, I then had to later evict this dog. No where near it’s hunter owner.
We’ve made something a little different to buy as a gift this Christmas.
You can contribute to a piece of land at Wild Finca & get a few different bonuses when you do. A long lasting gift to nature, and to others.
www.wildfinca.com/shop/p/secur...
Currently exploring with the kids a couple of hours from home. It’s hard to get a clear recording when 4 excitable children are in tow, but not much beats the sound of howling wolves in the mist.
We started a Wild Finca YouTube! We’ll post longer form videos up there, explaining our processes, habitats and species. Today we started with bale grazing with our cattle crew…
m.youtube.com/watch?v=GID9...
We waited for Woodcock this evening to no avail. Redwings and a Goshawk the avian consolation prizes. Pony scratches and cow cuddles too.
I think the narrative needs to move away from ‘reintroduction’, to introduction. I believe in certain cases they can be a good proxy for S.Bison. But it’s not a reintroduction as they were never present. I believe they can be used as a good tool in the right circumstances/setting/climate.
I’m undecided on E.Bison introduction. And being an enigmatic species, of course it holds public appeal. But perhaps, in the right circumstances (not dry, arid ,and increasingly hotter climates) they can be used as a proxy for Steppe Bison.
In Portugal for example introduced bison have focused on stripping bark and killing invasive acacia trees. Cattle, even introduced Taurus cattle, in the same area do not do this. They fill different niches.
‘It could be also argued that the extensive livestock that already exists there would presumably fulfill an equivalent function to extant bison (Velado-Alonso et al., 2020).’
From what I have seen this is not true, but specially in northern Spain.
However in northern Spain the climate (bar lacking very cold winters) is not dissimilar to that of the E.Bison’s natural range.
The introduction of E.Bison should be seen as a proxy replacement, not a reintroduction as it is often sold as.
The article mentions…
European Bison in Spain. An interesting paper.
They mention the Mediterranean environment a lot. Which I agree, isn’t suitable for bison, and if supplementary feeding is needed for them survive I think the project fails.
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
If you can’t get out here to visit us. Will has done a pretty amazing job to transport you there virtually.
