Scotland's Deserts are Turning Green - here's why 

Are estates asking people to come and hunt deer on their land?

@@triple3miller Sporting estates can usually make a reasonable income from stalking and shooting stags in the late summer and autumn, but to reduce an over-population of Red Deer in the Highlands, you would need to cull the female deer (hinds). This is a winter activity and pretty tough going, so is generally undertaken by professional stalkers, ghillies and gamekeepers employed by the estates themselves. A healthy market for the venison would help estates recover some of the expense that they incur in managing their deer numbers.

@@stonemarten1400 so let me get this straight.....we cull the deer to get the numbers down.....sell the meat so the estates make some profit......then when the numbers are down, the money stops coming in, so I know....lets get MORE deer roaming so we can have a deer industry....lets increase the heards so we can farm them on a large scale....History repeats itself

@@stonemarten1400 These estates should offer locals to hunt hinds for free. That would provide local families with healthy food while reducing the deer population.

@@triple3miller It would seem a good idea, but not so many rural folk in the UK have firearms licences, unlike the USA and Canada for example. Responsible deer management actually involves quite a lot of training too. It’s usually wet or snowing, so quite tough conditions up in the Highlands in the wintertime and shooting hinds and bringing down the carcass from the hill is really hard work. Likewise, the processing of the meat. You might not get so many volunteers.

I agree with you. It really does feel like we aren't moving fast enough to make the changes necessary. But change is happening!!

exactly 💯

I’m sure wolves could be introduced to keep deer populations in check.

@@antonleimbach648 With such an abundance of food you would get a large wolf population. Then the deer population goes down and this large wolf population still needs to feed. Looks like sheep is back on the menu boys!

No way wolves comming in. Im not going wild camping with wolves prowling about.

Schwarzwald? 😊

The deer policies in southern germany are absolutely ridiculous.

Now that Botswana is sending 20 000 free-range elephants to Germany, how are the Germans going to handle that?

@@insouciantme6015 Hollow-points.

@@insouciantme6015 How stupid can we get! I suppose you well know the havoc caused when elephants enter man's domain. There is a good series of videos about the recent escape of a group of 15 rarer Asian elephants from their reserve into the villages of S. China causing devastation of crops, grain stores, turning over cars with ease, & storming shops. Their little excursion caused over £ 1 million in damage.

As a Hungarian I can confirm/approve it.

Wolves are naturally making a return in various parts of Europe. Ask Ursula Van Der Leyen. There have been sheep lost to wolf attacks in Limousin in Central France. There's growing concern about bear attacks in Spain, Pyrenees I think Re-introducing large predators has to be handled carefully and they too may have to be culled in the future, populations of prey and predators are closely linked a boom in prey leads to a boom in predators, when the prey population collapses back to normal there's a lot of hungry predators. Always remember that these predators were hunted to extinction, or near extinction for many reasons not least competing with people.

Good on you guys! Preserve, rewild, restore..:-)))))

Maybe they'll swim over to Scotland.

They probably just ran out of deer in Slovakia and went Hungary.

Had the same experience in Ireland. It pains me when people say "Oh but Ireland is so green and idyllic." because I know it's just the sad shadow of what it once was.

5000 years ago the climate changed and the trees drowned as it became to wet for them.

@@georgeblackley6028 No. There was a lot of woodland right up to the arrival of cattle. Because there were wolves till the 18th Century cattle were accompanied when grazing the hills and were generally kept out of stands of trees. Then the demand for iron rose. Pine got felled and turned into charcoal for smelting on a huge scale (till it became possible to use coke). The wolves were gone and Southern Upland sheep ranchers moved in, preventing the pine from regenerating. On much on the inland Highlands sheep stocks soon crashed, the ground and climate were unsuitable. That coincided with the growth of a cult of stalking and shooting stags, and improved transport links from the south. Estates that made their income from paying guests who were taken up the hills to shoot deer became a paying proposition and these estates simply wanted there to be a lot of deer. We still haven't figured how to balance that with the continued wet desertification caused by overgrazing.

The real redpill is knowing that the stumps up on the mountains and such was caused by a cataclysmic tidal wave at one point in history.

It was the man who remove the forests in Scotland & Ireland, not climate its the same in Persia & so many places of the world ... I'm out country Australia where I live its nothing but dry grassland for hundreds of kilometres today, but paintings show from 100 odd years ago there were temperate rainforests & snow drifts 6ft high here.... Don't understate the power of man for thoughtless destruction in the name of progress. @@georgeblackley6028

I used to live in Shetland and I took part in some conservation activities there, including tree planting. It’s heartbreaking to see native trees dying out. I suggested getting some seeds from the nearest native woodland - Berrydale on Hoy in the Orkney Islands which I visited. That remnant woodland is being left to die out instead of being utilised for seed to spread native trees in the northern islands. Such a shame! Here’s a project for Mossy Earth.

why don't local governments revive it, educating people an what should be planted

@@gilgameschvonuruk4982 there’s some activity, but not enough will sadly.

I blame Thatcher and the Tories

take some first year hazel cutting just as they are beginning to bring leaves on in their second year, put them in water for a couple of days until they start to root then plant. that way you'll be able to replant some of your land with fully native hazel. theres youtube videos on it aswell

I grew up near Moniaive. Dumfries & Galloway economy needs a boost and nature could be a huge attraction.

Largely for the British Navy, and then for industry

I found out London is classified as a Forest please Goggle

I think Ireland was partly cleared so rebels couldn't hide in them.

Now they are cutting down millions more trees to make way for unnecessary Wind Farms, and to burn in the insane Drax power plant. Trees are the lungs of the planet, do not burn them!

And most think the landscape of today is natural 😂

I very often get things wrong, but I try to understand and explain things as they are. You're right, the work we do now is for future generations.

@@LeaveCurious What like removing comments you dislike? My comments on stalking/hunting to manage the deer populations and on introducing apex predators being a bad idea weren't bad but I suppose if you're some woke snowflake set on silencing opinions that differ from yours they would be. NOT A GOOD WAY TO MANAGE OR SUPPORT YOUR CHANNEL.

@@LeaveCurious Oh yeah unsubscribed and unliked, well done.

On my local river the fishing rights are owned by local estates which host visitors whom they take out fishing from the bank. The estates have removed trees from the banks and strimmer them for their delicate guests. Ironically this lack of shade means an increase in water temperature which kills off the fish. The gamekeepers and water bailiffs employed by the estates are trained to kill anything that eats fish. Herons, otters, cormorants. They also kill water voles and badgers and foxes and crows. This killing is carried out by torchlight and the killers are not always sober!

In Scotland we refer to these 'Scottish deserts' as 'MAMBA country', i.e., 'Miles And Miles of Bugger All', sad but true. I detest the 'rewilding' racket, which is just more elitist, anti-local families tripe where globalist-minded fanatics seem determined to turn the entire country into some kind of nationwide nature reserve and "to hell" with the average family and the local communities in the process. However, the bloke in the video is correct, we need the lynx re-introduced, it should have happened years ago, along with the Eurasian eagle owl. Both of those predators effectively cull red deer, albeit at the loss of some farm animals too. As long as the farmers get fully compensated for this, especially during the lambing season where they can lose many unborn lambs from just one lynx attack, then there won't be many problems.

I could tell from the video there was a touch of fear of the wolf. They typically avoid people.

Wolves have helped to reestablish an abundant number of different animals and plants. Really shows how nature strives for balance.

Wyoming is three times the size of Scotland and only has half a million people living in it.

@@aa-xg3ct I guess it ain't ruined yet.

what isn't ?@@daniellarson3068

exactly and northern Scotland is much much emptier than Denmark

Do you live in a city?

@@juleswhicker Probably, no one with pets or livestock would want wolves back surely? It took our ancestors years to get that situation under control.

We don't want the problems that wolves will bring. Farmers already lose enough livestock to foxes, badgers and eagles.

@@CollapsedLung maybe we shouldnt be basing the ecology of the entire british isles off that one concern, considering how much else it impacts. whole place is skunnered with crops and grazing fields where old growth used to be.

Conservation based regulations for hunting deer have been extremely successful in the US to maintain a healthy deer population. Introducing predators like wolves shouldn't happen unless it's legal to hunt them. They would destroy the deer population and livestock without proper management. Hunting is the most ethical and effective way to achieve the best outcome imo.

Thankyou for your worthwhile contribution

Sounds interesting, feel free to send me an email. Might be useful to meet for a future video.

Do you have an email address?

@@johnslavin2270 Check the description.

What?

@@johnslavin2270 It's in the video description mate, have a quick look.

Because there are very good reasons to why we got rid of wolves.

Scotland is small. Wolves migrate and farm animals make for easy picking. Scotland has no real wilderness and is full of hikers in the summer. The likelihood of bad interactions with wolves is far to high.

@@quillo2747 People wander around Yellowstone as well. Number of human deaths to wolves since they were reintroduced there: 0. Number of humans attacked by wolves since they were reintroduced there: 0. Please provide some evidence this would happen.

Why? What's wrong with Wolves?@@takeoischi4156

@@takeoischi4156 didn't we just slaughter them all?

You shouldn't constantly see deer, they have an excess of deer.

As regards wildlife. I'm a landscape photographer and regularly see deer, feral goats, badgers, foxes, beaver and the smaller species such as squirrels etc, marine sea life seals and birds from Curlew to Eagle via Puffin and others as I go around. BUT you need to get out of the car and walk ! And it does need to be in the right place at the right time of the year - eg : it's no good expecting salmon in December, or road side deer in June.

@@blackislepeas Oh, definitely. We were in the car a lot, but we also got out and did a lot of hiking. Unfortunately, I still thought there were too many people around haha. Granted, my perception is a little skewed. I grew up in a log cabin in the woods in the U.S. so there were animals everywhere.

It is Northern Scotland it ain't going to look like the Cotswolds it is a big open country.

@@jamesthomas4841 I'm aware! I wasn't expecting it to.

Yeah for sure, it be really interesting to see exactly how they impact deer. We won't know for sure until we try!

​@@LeaveCuriousthe English Navy cut down a hugh amount of straight Scots Pine for building empire ....this is rarely mentioned

mozzie? mosquito or black flies? Sorry, I don't know the term mozzie. I'm guessing mosquitos.

@@wickedguppy3715 Yes. Mozzie is British slang for mosquito. We also use very fine weave mosquito nets to keep out the dreaded Scottish midge. Which is another annoying bloodsucker. Though thankfully not a dangerous one, it can ruin a trip if you're not prepared.

Swedes generally don’t shoot wild boar which is the worst animal, they re too dangerous and difficult to hunt. Swedes are lazy they defend the deer on trails then shoot them from platforms, about as difficult as killing animals in an abattoir.

I'll add that to the many places I still need to see throughout Scotland! Thanks for the recommendation.

@@LeaveCurious You are welcome. There is also a small visitor centre by the road, and of course if you are in the area, take a quick look by the loch side and see if you can find the "Cashel" that gives the place its name. The oak woods are worth a visit in and of themselves, but the re-planting is probably the most important thing to see. There is also a micro hydro project and a small apple orchard with some traditional Scottish varieties. This area is a bit of a hidden gem, as most of the tourists are busy looking at the loch, or heading to climb Ban Lomond or Conic Hill.

I love the woods round Loch Lomond. Esp when the bluebells are out in spring mid May.

Fences do restrict deer movement. Here in Finland, we have a lot of fences that prevent deer and moose from running across high speed roads. And no, deer do not jump over those fences. Also, we do have lynxes, wolves and bears but deer are still numerous.

In the western Isles we had an estate put up an 8 foot fence to stop red deer but what they didn't realise was they trapped deer which in turn ruined the land and over 1 year later spent even more money having to remove the fence. But this is what happens when ppl that don't understand the land own it and try control it

Long ranges of fences have significant impacts on the environment and ecology, and Australia provides a particularly noteworthy example.

Right! The predators don’t target humans but you have to suppose that thousands of years of mythologizing locally extinct predators instilled a lot of fear in the people. Especially with wolves; the world used to be chock full of wolves, and the people who exterminated them from the english isles and almost all of europe did so with spears and clubs- there’s literally no reason to be afraid of them anymore

We sure love sheep.

Seems like we eat more chicken and beef tho LOL @@LeaveCurious

No people have its there sheep

Think you will find it is now the uncontrolled red deer that is ruining the Scottish Highlands and islands moorland

@@HootMaRoot Nope, plenty of areas with no deer, plenty of sheep and cattle with denuded soils and vegetation in Scotland. E.g many Hebridean islands. Fencing off conservation projects boosted health for ecosystems there. I've seen these changes with my own eyes.

Several years ago I was a Taxi Driver in North Lancashire, I was given a job to take a young man to Skipton. All the way along the journey he was pointing out which member of the Aristocracy owned which bits of land and how he had been invited to go on Pheasant shoots there. I got fairly annoyed with him and asked if he had ever seen a Hen Harrier and how he could be fine with the gamekeepers wantonly killing them. The rest of the journey passed in mutual silence.

Thanks a lot! Appreciate the support.

Theres just so much potential, for even more beauty and its no a million years away, with meaningful actions now we could see positive change in our lifetimes!

Yeah thats a good argument!!

Because wild venison is sold at such a premium supermarkets couldn't sell it, so many of the estates that do culls end up having to dispose of them instead of lowering the price

Wild venison not for the likes of us.

If you harvest so much venison that you have to throw it away, then you can just sell it cheaper. That is literally the underpinning of economics.

@@georgelane6350 It’s not so much that it would be worth lowering the price because that lower price wouldn’t cover the costs. There’s not that much demand and getting smaller local things made to larger chains is expensive.

Question is, so what? Land use changes, environments change.

@@sandersson2813but it looks like crap. Why would you want a deserted wasteland devoid of life when you could have a thriving forest? I’ve never been interested in visiting the UK specifically because they lack nice scenery. I’m sure most people would appreciate forests instead of everything being barren

@@shamicentertainment1262 Why do you care about the looks of something that for 99.999999% of your life you aren't seeing? Have you ever been to Finland? Let me tell you seeing trees for hundreds of kilometres is BORING. Also, to say the UK lacks nice scenery shows a spectacular lack of knowledge and ignorance.

@@sandersson2813 It’s actually much better to have forests and fields full of healthy grass, moss ,bushes and flowers than to have a DESERT. Considering all of the benefits of healthy land, soil and forests, Environmentally, economically, for the wildlife and even for UR OWN HEALTH. It’s pretty selfish and ignorant of you to say that it’s boring 🥱, maybe it is for YOU but its not for EVERYONE specifically people who like to walk in nature. Don’t go to Finland if u find it that boring 🤷‍♀ I agree the uk has a lot of beautiful scenery but if people keep destroying nature then it wont anymore 😐 Also yes environments change , it’s normal… At this rate? No it’s not normal… science has proven over and over that human activities ARE INFACT making environments / climates change faster. Indigenous people are actually LOSING THEIR HOMES because of it. 🌳 But people are to selfish to realise, because they don’t care unless if it effects THEM.😑

@@sopfhie748 You have clearly misunderstood me. First of all there aren't any areas of desert in Scotland, or indeed the UK, secondly I don't deny the importance of forests and other vegetation. My point was that if your entire country is covered in trees, it is boring, this is why I mentioned Finland because if you've ever been anywhere where all you can see is trees, it IS boring. You need a variety of landscapes and types of (and lack of ) vegetation . I'm not for a moment saying trees are boring, just that nothing but trees is boring.

hmmm very interesting, I'll have to look up A.Ledger. Cheers!

have you ever heard of chronic wasting disease

I agree. I think just trying unilaterally cover all of Scotland with trees isn’t the way. There’s a compromise. Scotland’s grassy heathered, glens, moors and hills are some of the most beautiful places on earth. Nurturing the return of some of Scotland’s natural forests should be an important goal, but also nurturing crofting and larger farms is also very important. Also helping all understand the importance of hunting and management of deer populations. Stalking deer is a wonderful practice that has deep roots in our human history. And Scotland’s history. Lovely lovely Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I would love to see Wolf, lynx, boar, bear, and european bison reintroduced to Scotland. There are even reports of accidental introduction of panthers with is unexpected return to Pleistocene. Hinting is good, and having more species to hunt, same or resembling ones our ancestors hunted thousands of years ago is even better. People got to soft, there's no wilderness in the UK, it's all a safe garden and that empowers for weakness, can you truly feel magic of the place and presence of your ancestors when you took out raw power of nature from the landscape?

lynxes too had been seen in our country my grand-father think he saw one, and there's even, they came back during the confinement, in 2020-2021 unfortunately it's only a lone male, we can only hope some female can cross from germany or france to our country or that reintroduction is made same for bison, there's apparently some sort of reintroduction project for the eurasian wisent in southern of Wallonia, but nothing concrete for now

Land use in Scotland has been systemically very badly managed for hundreds of years. The conspiracist in me would say that it was a very deliberate decision to drive the contrapopulation of the Highlands (which in actuality can account for as much as 80% of Scotland's land area) because it historically was a source of great resistance to English rule and the Jacobites recruited heavily from there. Part of me does bristle at these rewilding projects since they are ignoring the history of the settled peoples there, a people that had lived throughout Scotland since the end of the last ice age and it makes these areas cultural deserts even if it fixes them ecologically. In Europe one does find that large wild areas can coexist quite happily interspersed with human civilisation than has been common in Scotland for the last few centuries.

@@debbiegilmour6171 The clearances were financially motivated - sheep were more valuable than peasants and therefore the peasants were "relocated". Usually to ridiculously inhospitable places. There have been various peoples calling Scotland home, there are not one "people that had lived throughout Scotland since the end of the last ice age". Over thousands of years the land has seen many invasions and migrations from pretty much all directions (e.g. everything except for the North West) the most recent were the Picts and Gaels, but before that it was a real assortment of invaders which tends to be where the Nordic rather than Irish cultural inputs come from but the Bretons also held a sway of Scotland too.

@@nickryan3417 Sheep aren't worth much more than a couple of thousand pounds over their rather short lifetimes. They can't be taught anything of value and they get themselves killed in all manner of stupid fashions. Compare that to a human who can live up to eighty years and contribute decades worth of work to the economy. No sheep is ever going to paint a great work of art, discover a cure for cancer, stand for election, and most pertinently no sheep will ever take part in a political uprising. A human sure as well can however. The whole idea that sheep are somehow more valuable than people is risible. The people were relocated because the English didn't like the idea of facing another Jacobite uprising after the 1745. While it was defeated, the loss to victory ratio was not favourable to the English and it wouldn't have been sustainable to the UK in the long term. The vast majority of people living in Scotland today are by and large the same as those who lived in those areas 10,000 years ago. It is well documented.

@@debbiegilmour6171 DNA esearch shows that the locals who lived around the last ice asge no longer exist and have been replaced by people from the east thousands of years ago . Its easy to blame the past ,but really the past of more than 50 yrs ago does not come into it. Its modern day Scots and the new devolved Scottish government that need changing their mindset. From what i understand its Foreign Billionaires who are buying up Scottish land and rewilding it that are doing the most good

I sadly think it’s gonna be a long time if ever that wolves and bears are introduced. There’s just too much fear by humans let alone livestock issues. Lynx are a much better idea at least in the near term to reintroduce as they pose zero threat to humans.

@@gothicgolem2947 I certainly wouldn't be opposed to introducing lynx, but as a singular predatory animal, nothing but humans would be capable of being a predator that could keep them in check also. The way I see it if you're going to have some of it, you got to have all of it. Here in North America we have lots of predatory animals that can indeed be a threat to humans, but most people have enough common sense to take certain precautions when in an area that has said predatory animals. They compete with each other for food sources, so in other words they keep the other's population in check, with less intervention from humans being necessary. Nice username btw lol

Personally I don’t think the UK could support bears. Wolves and Lynx maybe. But bears? Definitely not in its current state

@@OzzieMozzie777 idk if we’d need to keep them in check for a long time. There’s only so much land in Scotland that they can live in so the numbers can only increase so much until more land is reworded to support them. I really don’t think that’s a good idea. Too many would be scared of wolves and farmers would be terrified so it just would not work. It’s hard enough just getting the lynx to come back getting wolves or bears might make it impossible. Thanks lol like yours too

@@gothicgolem2947 fair points, perhaps you're right. But people like farmers would be less terrified of them if they wouldn't get in massive trouble for just shooting them or trapping them. The fact that this is such a real concern for them is insane frankly, especially if the animal poses a threat to livestock and or people. I guess I have more traditional views on how nature should be

Yes,let's turn Scotland into a Disney nature park,some of us actually live and work here,you try living without roads and railways.🙄

@@scottruthven9282 It's so revealing that you think wild-life equates to disneyfication, when it really is the opposite. You don't NEED the roads and rail, you just want them so you can carry on your destructive lifestyle.

I will take my donkey to work shall I, mabe carry my wife or kids the 10 miles to the doctors on my back, its Scotland not Alaska,get back to reality.

So... effectively, deer kill capercaillie, because the need for deer fences which you say kill capercaillie is caused by deer overpopulation.

❤

👍👏

Well said and I agree with almost all your points. I would love to see more people living and working in the Highlands and Islands too, perhaps reviving some of the communities from times before the clearances, although folks would need to temper their expectations. As an estate manager in Scotland, I would caution the blanket break-up of large estates however, as economies of scale often allow employment opportunities that smaller, owner-occupied crofts may not be able to afford, especially if these are sold-on as second or holiday homes. Definitely agree that there are opportunities and benefits in re-wilding, eco-tourism and suchlike, sensitive to the interests of local people.

Venison make fantastic casserole. No special prep needed

@@rodcurrieclassics8102 Without proper preparation and cooking, many people are going to find venison to be too gamey. Then, they will be turned off by it and will never try it again. The idea is to get people to eat it on a regular basis. One can just search on YT and find all sorts of ways that people prepare venison in order that it will taste good to most people.

@@rodcurrieclassics8102 Without proper preparation and cooking, many people are going to find venison to be too gamey. Then, they will be turned off by it and will never try it again. The idea is to get people to eat it on a regular basis.

It is not the only option. Private owners should not have that much power over the land. Wildlife must be allowed to thrive on both private and state owned ground.

Hit the nail on the head. The issue is the pattern of land ownership. Until we have proper land reform, it will be very difficult to make any change for the public good over the private good.

Spot on They Want To Wipe out the Wildlife Trust Me Most Areas in England have Already Lost Over 90 Percent of their Wildlife and More River Life in 30 Years the English will have to Go To Holiday Areas to See What's Left Of Some their Wild Life Part of Agenda Total Control of Humanity This Part Is Food Price Quality Control The Also Plan To Over Populate Scotland Protect All Farm Land Your Green Belt Hedgerows and Wildlife Scotland Better Grow a Spine Fast The Irish Are

The Viking then the Germans Brought Wolves to The UK They Dont Belong Here and Large Cats are insane This Is Planned Dont Let it Happen

Look at the wildlife management in any publicly owned land, ie parks. No investment into wildlife management allows invasive and destructive species to flourish while things like song birds diminish.

And as a Scot I can testify that there's certainly no "lack of rainfall" in Scotland :).

@@anonymes2884 You're right there! Especially if you live in the Trossachs.

Desertification is a thing that happens when productivity is degraded even where there is much more rainfall than potential evapotranspiration. Look at Iceland. The entire island is subject to a Cfc (humid oceanic, no dry season, cold summer) climate or a tundra climate, and it is subject to extreme desertification. The only saving grace they have is the rainfall, which gets them out of the desertification faster when the correct methods are applied.

@@ellenorbjornsdottir1166 My understanding is that desertification is the process of land turning into desert, and deserts are areas of land that receive less than 5mm of rainfall per year. If Iceland gets more rain than that, how is it being desertified? Is there more than one definition?

Awesome, cheers!!

99% no 99,99% farm lands were forest, christianity is and was forced farming religion

​@@jussikankinen9409The celts and picts were farmers too. I'm no fan of Christianity. But blaming agriculture on it is silly. Agriculture is much older.

We have pretty much build over everything, there is very little wilderness left. Reintroducing the predators of old, simply would not work, there is no longer enough space.

you're right. It's very sad@@GusMac6129

Bring on the Lynx! ❤️🐅

The issue is what it has always been. Scotland is seen as a playground for the rich. Vast swathes of land are owned and deliberately kept in an ecologically unviable state so that the landowners can bring their pals up to play at being hunters and feel special at the expense of the country. The only way to resolve this is land reform and redistribution. A land tax that increases per acre owned to make it financially unviable for a few multi-millionaires to own half the country would be a good start. A move to eating hunted venison would only increase the financial viability of keeping the land in this state and keeping absurdly high levels of deer. It would only encourage more misuse and consolidation of land. (Just to clarify, I'm all for deer culling and making use of that meat. I just think it needs to be done in a way that doesn't encourage the use of land for raising more deer in the long term.)

no human are opportunistic hunter, but no natural predators. Look at us, we're primate not wolves or feline, we are not natural born killer, we are not strict carnivore, and our lineage is that of frugivorous opportunistic apes. Our natural diet is mainly composed of fruits, roots, nuts, vegetables, tubers, mushroom, and maybe some fishes and insects and other invertebrate. With some scavenging and small game on occasion. Regular hunting is actually really recent in our History. Also it,'s not natural predation especially with fucking manufactured guns, or when you kill 10 time more than you need, or feed and farm the deers to maintain the overpopulation to continue your business for money. and also, human are non-native, a species that did not belong to any ecosystem in Scotland, so no we do not count as natural predators there, we're invasive species. wild game meat is not more ethical than pork, chicken and beef, more ecological maybe, (depend on the species hunted) and lot of "wild" game meat came from farmed animals that are kept under condition similar to that of industrial intensive farming, then released in the wild or in large enclosure to be hunted and killed. deers, boar, pheasan, partridge etc. For exemple, where hundreds of thousands of them are farmed, bred in horrible condition then released to be hunted. Which is a major sanitary risk, like bird flu, african procine pest etc. And very immoral, and ecological destruction as it introduce exotic animals or degrade the genetics of the local wild populations and if you think this is rare and anecdotic, well think again, this is 50 millions birds per years www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/18/release-of-non-native-game-birds-to-be-challenged-in-court

​@deinsilverdrac8695 Humans are natural predators and have been hunting for survival our entire existence. Apes hunt monkeys to survive. Humans have used arrowheads and spears dating back 100,000 years for hunting. We couldn't have survived the winters without meat. That's why we were called 'hunter gatherers' before we started cultivating crops. Native Americans and Eskimos survived almost solely by hunting.