UK Nature and Environment

396 readers

47 users here now

General Instance Rules:

No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
Do not spam or abuse network features.

Community Specific Rules:

Keep posts UK-specific. There are other places on Lemmy to post articles which relate to global environmental issues (e.g. slrpnk.net).
Keep comments in English so that they can be appropriately moderated.

Note: Our temporary logo is from The Wildlife Trusts. We are not officially associated with them.

Our autumn banner is a shot of maple leaves by Hossenfeffer.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Kim

GreyShuck

‘I’m used to people thinking I’m lying’: are Scotland’s sea eagles killing hundreds of lambs? (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 days ago by GreyShuck to c/nature

1 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Two spinal cords, a dozen ribs and a hollowed-out head lie next to a peak called “rock of the eagle” in Gaelic. These are the remains of a pair of three-month-old lambs. It’s muggy, and maggots and foxes will make light work of the remaining skin and bone. In a few weeks, it’ll be as if it never happened.

Ruaridh MacKay, who has been farming here at Stronmagachan Farm in Inveraray for 25 years, picks up one of the spinal cords: sodden and slimy from successive fronts of rain, every morsel of flesh has been excavated. He was expecting to take these lambs to market next month.

All around are miles of sheep-grazed hills, like a giant lawn spun inside a tumble dryer. The valley is bowl-shaped and gets steeper the higher it rises, finishing in sheer rock. The sheep that live up here are bred for these conditions – both farmer and sheep have long lineages. Farming on these hills has changed little in 150 years.

top 1 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Uranium_Green@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago

Fascinating read, and I think they cover the actual reason for this occuring so much more on these now barren islands where it doesn't occur in anywhere near the same numbers in other places that the eagle has been reintroduced; the hills are barren from humans clearing them in the early 20th century, there is no tree cover and consequently significantly fewer alternative prey for these eagles, less shelter for lambs and sheep, and less biodiversity.

The reality of the situation sounds like the farmers and their livestock would benefit from attempting to reforest, atleast in part. It would take a good 15-30 years at a minimum before forest would be regrown enough to enable other prey species to thrive, but it is probably the best option for keeping the places viable as farms without eradicating the eagles.