The landowner who took Dartmoor national park to court to ban wild camping may be putting a rare beetle at risk by releasing pheasants next to an ecologically important woodland, against the advice of environmental experts.
This is despite him having said he pushed for a wild camping ban in order to “improve conservation of the Dartmoor commons”, arguing that campers damage the national park with litter and disturbance.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so if the individual beats the Blob in one manner then the Blob will smear him in another. Ho Hum.
All a bit transparent really, isn’t it?
Anyway, all beetles are rare. No, beetles are not rare, but as a part of God’s inordinate fondness for them any specific type of beetle is rare. So many millions of species, not that many of any specific species. Not entirely and wholly true but close enough.
Beetles are a good source. If the pheasants don’t eat them, something else will
I like their claim that lounging around in the bush doesn’t affect the environment. But perhaps if the let ’em eat beetles program comes in, they’ll change their minds.
Time we Humans went on the endangered species list.
Pheasants are omnivores but beetles don’t feature on the WKPD list of their diets: lots of vegetation, worms, ants, grubs, leatherjackets, larvae, caterpillars, grasshoppers, spiders …
Beetles must be quite tough to eat and low nutrient/effort ratio
So I agree with Tim: it looks like a smear
If he’s released pheasants he’ll also be feeding them, maize or wheat most probably. They won’t worry too many beetles.
No doubt there are beetles that love to snack on overlooked grains of wheat and maize. Then they’ll get obese and die!!!!!
Tragedy of Privatization, innit?