Exactly my thoughts. I’ve been marking them all as “non-wild” but the maker of the forum thread keeps labelling them as wild, keeping them at RG when they shouldn’t be.
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Funny how the Wellington tuatara discussion went the opposite way. Most people were adamant they should be treated as wild.
In my opinion the two situations are almost mirror images. In the tuatara case, almost all tuatara observations belong to this population.
Whilst the centre refers to all the reindeer as a singular herd its important to note that there are distinct herds within the population. Each population is given different treatment. Im going to refer to these as population A, B and C.
Population A is kept in a farm, this is made up of rescued individuals from farms ect, aswell as those which become abandoned by the free range herds due to age - these are often used for events.
Population B is the one most people go to see. They are kept in the fenced area on the Cairngorm - whilst they are technically able to leave they tend to he herded back in.
Population C is the one I agrue should be listed as wild. They are free to roam the national park as they please (including the enclosure as that is permanently open as previously stated) simply not leaving as the only other suitable habitat is not connected to the one they find themselves in. They only times they are rounded up is if theres a disease outbreak within the population (which often done with other species in the UK), individuals are taken into captivity if it is deemed cruel (if they have deformities for example) yet another thing that is common with wild animals in the UK. I agree populations A and B should be considered captive. But population C? If they are captive then shouldnt the countless other species that are montored for disease and illness?
Most people were wrong. Paul Dennehy’s explanation of why the reindeer are captive applies to those tuatara as well.
“Translocation of the founding population” is unambiguously “because a human intended for them to be there.” And the hatchlings born in the enclosure – well, with plants, we only count seedlings as wild if they have spread “outside the intended gardening area.”
I’m not sure that “countless” is literally true in this context, because the species monitored for disease and illness are a subset of the known species. That isn’t pedantry; it is a useful distinction in determining the degree of wildness.
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FWIW the more I’ve thought about this, the more I’m agreeing with you. We humans have contrived to engineer a situation to maintain them in that place.