Wild Boar, Bison and mass media coverage.

Wow, what a day.  We’re on the road just after half 6.  Surprisingly, it’s raining.  In fact everywhere between Glen Moriston and Kincraig looks very wet.  It’s also cold, the temp doesn’t get much over 4 degrees outside while we’re in the car.

We get to Highland Wildlife park at 8.30am.  Alan Watson Featherstone is already doing a radio interview for the BBC.

Myself, Kate and Kevin are given a Landrover tour of the park.  Elk, Bison and a family of Amur Tiger, are the highlights.

I also spend a fair bit of time watching the wolf that keeps trotting around their enclosure. Wolves are a beautiful and misunderstood animal. As a predator to Deer they play a key role in European ecosystems, and their extirpation from Britain, through hunting, is an important reason why the Caledonian forest is unable to regenerate naturally, without human intervention.

We struggle to get the trailer to the pigs, in the mud (they are surely going to love their new home). But we’re on our way before 11, and when we make it back to Dundreggan, there are a number of people having tea and cakes in the cottage.

After another brief inspection by a vet and the dangerous animals inspector, the release goes very smoothly. The 6 sows trot off into the woods, curiously exploring their new surroundings. It’s very cool to see.

There must have been a good 25 people to see the release, including representation from BBC Scotland, STV and Gaelic television. I’ve managed to locate the following articles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8370348.stm
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/wild-boar-our-new-eco-warriors-1.986562
http://news.scotsman.com/odd/Boars-to-return-to-the.5858725.jp
http://www.biodiversityscotland.gov.uk/library/Issue%2032%20final%20version.pdf

It is possible to find more articles by googling “Dundreggan boar” and any other words you think might help. I believe there is also a clip on bbc iplayer, but my internet connection is not going to be up for finding that.

Apologies for the terrible state of my pics.  My camera and bad weather don’t mix (it’s not completely recovered from the soaking it received on Skye), and the light was poor and there was water on the lens.  Really, there was…