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Went for a ride in the forest on the 30/12 and swear I heard wolves howling! Beautiful soundtrack. Anyone else heard anything like that before?
That was me, I had just stepped on some lego
OP has clearly been at the Christmas sherry.
🙂
It's the echoes of my lamentation of parkamoor being sanitized.
Or coniston fox hounds.
I clicked on the thread hoping for a Dog Soldiers reference. A genuinely great film.
(but only the second best B movie of all time)
Serious answer? Are there any dog sled teams train at Grizedale?
(but only the second best B movie of all time)
Oooh, let me guess.
Pitch Black?
martinhutch
Oooh, let me guess.
Pitch Black?
Not to derail the thread, but not even close...
A genuinely great film.
(but only the second best B movie of all time)
You forgot to include the, "in your humble opinion" bit
So obviously I'll just spend my time guessing at my cat's opinion of the best ever B Movie 🙂
They’ve reintroduced some Iberian lynx around my way, could make the gravel more interesting being chased by a pack of them.
(Always grown up with urban foxes tbh that would make the noises and I have a feeling that my mum still regularly cooks chicken breasts for some in the garden, probably a family of them been there for 40+ years thinking about it.)
Or me dads a werewolf.
He actually did escape from hospital after a triple bypass oddly and got picked up by the police wandering the street in just a hospital gown.
A long time ago I was night riding solo on the quantocks.
Climbing up through great woods, I heard barking and howling of a pack of animals. It got closer, faster and the only thing I could think was the farmhouse at the bottom of the valley had let out their dogs.
Add in some bright lights moving fast up the valley and it was a proper WTf moment until two husky/sled teams came racing past me.
I saw them again stopped at the top of the valley later and it turns out they trained at night because it was colder and the dogs ran better. And used hope lights on the sleds…
I used to be a werewolf but I'm alright noooooooooooooooooooooooow!
They’ve reintroduced some Iberian lynx around my way
where’s this, please? That’s Interesting, they’re amazing animals
Must have been that wolf experience, much as I wish I had pedalled all the way to some north American wilderness (or b movie film set) it was just Grizedale forest.
Add in some bright lights moving fast up the valley and it was a proper WTf moment until two husky/sled teams came racing past me.
I saw them again stopped at the top of the valley later and it turns out they trained at night because it was colder and the dogs ran better. And used hope lights on the sleds…
Had this happen to me a few years back locally, a team used the bridleways in the woods to train at night. Gets the adrenaline and the imagination flowing.
Went for a ride in the forest on the 30/12 and swear I heard wolves howling! Beautiful soundtrack. Anyone else heard anything like that before?
At least one of the sculptures makes a howling ish sound when the wind blows right!
That predator experience looks great. I know someone who'd love that. Cheers.
I went to the summit of the Grand Loop Pass in Yellowstone at 4am to hear wolves howling as the sun rose. Magic, but very cold. -10 degrees C can test your patience and your bladder...
Wolves howled, the sun rose, and I didn't piss myself. Winner!
Hearing wild dogs howling at night, in packs, was my third last relaxing night in a tent in North America.
The second worst was the lightning being so close to the tent that there was no time gap to the sound. The worst was the sound of drunk youngsters shooting cans
Muntjac sound pretty bizarre, could it not have been them?
They’ve reintroduced some Iberian lynx around my way
where’s this, please? That’s Interesting, they’re amazing animals
It’s Spain
I’m planning a pootle up that way springtime.
Someone is trying to reintroduce lynx in the UK (and in Keilder IIRC) but I don't know how successful they've been so far. Also I thought they were really shy so not likely to see much apart from the odd ex-deer?
They’ve reintroduced some Iberian lynx around my way
where’s this, please?
I'd assumed this was a trick question 🙂
It’s Spain
No shit!
I guess it could have been gibraltar 🙄
Someone is trying to reintroduce lynx in the UK (and in Keilder IIRC) but I don’t know how successful they’ve been so far.
Not very. They arent the best representatives of the rewild movement to be honest (although since they are keen on lawyers lets stop there). Which is somewhat sad since there really is a good argument for lynxes in order to keep the rather high deer population on its toes and under control.
You are right about chances of seeing them is about zero beyond maybe some tracks. Very shy and basically zero risk to humans unless you somehow managed to stumble into one which didnt spot you coming and had no escape route. Even then its interest would be in getting out of the way.
Golfchick: muntjac do bark which can be freakish but dont howl.
I do sometimes ride near a wildlife park and also a big cat sanctuary. At night or even day a big cat making noise is distinctly unnerving.
The folk who wanted to reintroduce lynx into keilder were utter clowns with zero idea what they are doing and zero answers to the issues reintroducing apex predators brings. Real nonsense from them
Isn’t that predator experience south of the a590? Only thing I’ve heard in Grizedale recently is owls, so intrigued by the suggestion of something more exotic!
The folk who wanted to reintroduce lynx into keilder were utter clowns with zero idea what they are doing and zero answers to the issues reintroducing apex predators brings.
Go on. What risks for lynx which arent apex predators outside of a very unnatural environment.
Swedish sheep keeping habits aside which a)dont apply here and b)needs their already subsidised existence balanced against the benefits.
Their answer to " what happens if a lynx takes a sheep" was twofold. 1) money raised from the project ( how?) will pay compensation and 2) buy guard llamas
the fact that they had no idea how to actually raise money from the reintroduction to pay that compensation just adds to it
totally naive and no thought for practicalities
totally naive and no thought for practicalities
True since that group has many problems. However we really shouldnt be letting a bunch of people living off subsidies prevent the reintroduction of animals which would benefit the country in general massively.
The reality is given the denuded nature of the sheep deserts the lynx wouldnt even play a part in the death of sheep beyond farmers trying to cash in.
During the night rides I’ve done I reckon id be ok with heading howling but if I rode past something like this I’d genuinely brick it.
I’ve had a fear of witches since childhood. Most annoying!
No shit!
I guess it could have been gibraltar 🙄
Dunno, tbh I used to giggle seeing the llamas on my rides from Brizzle to Usk 🙂
I don’t think we have the same issues with sheep.
reintroduction of animals which would benefit the country in general massively.
massively? How many lynx would be needed to make any sort of dent in the deer population?
Forget the Christmas smellies discussion Rick Mayall was in AAWIL.
massively? How many lynx would be needed to make any sort of dent in the deer population?
Probably not that many if you look at the reintroduction of predators elsewhere and their effect on herbivores. Admittedly the advantage would be limited by the lack of tree cover for the lynx but that undermines the argument put forward by those claiming a risk to their sheep.
I seem to recall you being opposed to the grouse shooters being able to doing what they want when they want. Why does your opinion change when it comes to the sheep subsidy brigade?
Whats the difference between killing some inconvenient harriers and lynx in your eyes?
I have no issue with predator reintroductions but they need to be done properly with compensation in place for those who lose animals to the introduced predators and also a realistic idea of outcomes.
We have hundreds of thousands of excess deer. It would take a lot of lynx to do anything significant and I have my doubts about how many red deer the worst pest they would take
I don’t know that they take that many, just scare them off and reduce overgrazing and the carrying capacity for deer populations?
We often howl like wolves at Harold, in an attempt to awaken some primal wolf instinct in him.
He generally just rolls his eyes and looks at us like we're dicks though.
OP, are you sure it was howling? LOL!
It's almost full moon tonight you know.
Could be some locals venturing into the woods transforming themselves ... LOL!
Harold's cracking. Have you not tried a mouth organ to bring on the howl? Always worked for our old dog.😃
I have no issue with predator reintroductions but they need to be done properly with compensation in place for those who lose animals to the introduced predators and also a realistic idea of outcomes.
The farmers are already well compensated by the rest of us and since we dont have the Swedish model of sheep grazing the overlap is minimal. Even in Sweden there are large question marks about the actual loss rate vs another convenient subsidy from those townies.
The impact on red deer would, obviously, be minimal for the same reasons the impact on farmers would be. They dont generally hang around in open areas so given the current state the overlap would be low.
Although the fragmented woodland wouldnt be the best for lynx they are likely to disrupt deer habits in the immediate areas. So not a cure for the entire country would be for some areas.
In the same way that if pine martins got reintroduced/stopped being killed by gamekeepers we would see a better outcome for red squirrels overall but not everywhere eg evidence indicates the martins dont like urban areas so they would remain a stronghold for the greys.
There is certainly no more reason to oppose them being reintroduced than there is to support brood meddling and other ways to suppress raptors.
If it was wolves there is a more viable argument but not with lynx.
.
Have you not tried a mouth organ to bring on the howl? Always worked for our old dog.😃
A recording of the local scrapman and his van's tune from the horn ("Old I-ron") works neatly for our dog. And his brother. Put them together and it's really, really funny.
Someone is trying to reintroduce lynx in the UK (and in Keilder IIRC) but I don’t know how successful they’ve been so far. Also I thought they were really shy so not likely to see much apart from the odd ex-deer?
If you never see them they could be those “missing lynx” people talk about.
I do sometimes ride near a wildlife park and also a big cat sanctuary. At night or even day a big cat making noise is distinctly unnerving.
There's a pride of lions at a small sanctuary next to a bridleway on the edge of Nottingham. Took a group riding over there last summer who didn't believe it. The lions helpfully growled as we rode along the edge of the enclosure before we could see them - that focused minds 🤣
They had cubs last year as well - so cute!
We have wild Lynx and Wolves locally.
The ex has come across the Lynx before now when she's been out running early morning (well before 6 am) they generally take one look and run off. Occasionally they've taken two looks, a stretch and done a runner.
The big wolf pack was extensively culled 5-6 years ago, because they took some sheep (half a dozen or so) and apparently there is then a significant risk that they will simply keep going back for more sheep as they are far easier to hunt than deer.
What was left of the wolves are still around, and regularly massacre the local deer population, i sometimes come across bits of fairly freshly killed deer when out and about in the woods and one of my neighbours about 2km away posted some pictures last spring of three or four of them playing in the meadow behind her house, so they are definitely still about.
Two riders I know both spotted lynx on different rides in the forests in the Neath valley, about 20 odd years ago. Both had good views of the animals and are reliable people. The forest and open moorland stretch for many miles - basically most of the way across Wales - so there’s no lack of habitat, but there was a question of where they came from.
The possible answer was a small zoo nearby which closed down about 25 years ago and had a relaxed system for getting rid of unwanted animals. A colleague, who went to the school at the edge of the zoo, recently said that there were instances when they weren’t allowed onto the playing fields because of loose animals. (Wolves and monkeys were mentioned.)