What to Cull Next?

I did get a comment on this blog once from a farmer who referred to deer as vermin. I suppose those who want to manage everything and only allow their own ratified and managed species onto their land will always see non-approved species in that way. I've heard some think this way of ramblers using footpaths across their fields.

It might be hoped that wildlife charities could see things differently. But not in the case of RSPB. It's not just the case that their royal charter means they take no position on the shooting of game birds. They go as far as to replicate some of the management strategies of the shooting industry. When  we hear of the occasional prosecution of gamekeepers for killing a bird of prey we might get the wrong idea. The RSPB itself attacks and kills predators. And a recent statement from the top man at the RSPB has incensed some people.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/29/rspb-backs-pheasant-shoots

http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2015/apr/05/the-big-issue-wildlife-birds-environment-countryside

Next on the agenda at Eastern Moors are those animals identified as a potential threat to to their list of target species.  It could well be that they are already dispatching foxes and birds of the crow family to protect curlews for example. Once you intervene in this way you risk distorting species populations in ways that can never be subject to accountability. Who can say what is the 'right' number of pairs of curlews in a country? Humans are definable as the species which always thinks it knows best but very rarely does, except when it's too late.