More Wild, Less Wild

These photos taken within a few minutes of each other. A case of 'Out with the old, in with the new'?

More Wild-Red Deer Browsing on Typical Blacka Vegetation

The second wet and dripping morning. So where would the cattle be on a morning like this? My guess was where I would go myself during a lengthy wet spell. Somewhere fairly sheltered - and best for that is under the wide canopy of the beeches on the bridleway of the Canons Path. Curiosity took me there and sure enough they had left unmistakable evidence nearby. Standing on the track the movement in a nearby clearing alerted me to the deer browsing among the young birch and rowan. Within minutes they had moved off to be replaced by five bovine intruders.

Less Wild- Two Minutes Later: the Heavy Brigade Moves In

It's the way things are done today that some will enthuse about how marvellous these highland cattle look and how great it is for Blacka Moor. They will be those who have a need to reinforce a judgement already made. And they would probably say the same about my view. "After all everything's subjective isn't it?" I can hear it now. But it's perverse to fail to back one's judgement when it's anyway based on genuine observation untainted by self interest professional or otherwise. Cattle are built for meat production, heavy, bulky and selected to be fit for that purpose. Deer are slim, to carry not too much weight and so better to escape natural predators. They get no supplementary feed and have to fend for themselves in the toughest weather. The result is an animal that is at one with its purpose and its surroundings. It just looks right!

I remember that, a few years back, we first saw the deer, a small party of them, coming on to Blacka the week before Christmas, across the open space now polluted with cattle fencing I spoke with the wildlife trust 'reserve manager' about it and said how right they looked in the landscape. The reaction was odd and it was a while before I understood why. They saw these genuinely wild animals as a threat to their management strategy. If wild nature could come along and do its own thing here, where did that leave their plans to do much the same thing with cattle?