Comment on The misty moor by LawrenceCornellPhoto
Oh, isn't Dartmoor a national park? I would have thought those are actually wild ponies. Well, in this case I guess the decline in numbers is not necessarily a bad thing. Thanks for detailed answer Lawrence. 
Yes it is a National Park but they are wild ponies. They don't receive any attention from the farmers during the year.
They just get rounded up once a year and then decisions are made about their future. Otherwise they are just left to
fend for themselves.
Naturally, they have worked out that visitors to the park will feed them if they hang around the main car parks looking cute
but the park has strict guidelines where no feeding is allowed. They always try to minimise contact between the ponies and humans.
Generally they do a good job and it works well.
I like to find the ponies in their own habitat and will spend a lot of time looking for them and just spending time around them so they get used to me
before I start taking pictures. I don't want to stress them at all.
They just get rounded up once a year and then decisions are made about their future. Otherwise they are just left to
fend for themselves.
Naturally, they have worked out that visitors to the park will feed them if they hang around the main car parks looking cute
but the park has strict guidelines where no feeding is allowed. They always try to minimise contact between the ponies and humans.
Generally they do a good job and it works well.
I like to find the ponies in their own habitat and will spend a lot of time looking for them and just spending time around them so they get used to me
before I start taking pictures. I don't want to stress them at all.
Ok, somehow the definition of a national park is very vague and is not the same across all nations. Generally, animal population can only be regulated (by hunting) if it's to retain the original state of the ecosystem before humans messed it up. For example, in germany they hunt to reduce the numbers of red-deers around because there aren't natural enemies (bears, wolves...) anymore. I would have thought that selling those animals is prohibited in national parks.
Well, at least they can mostly roam freely until they are sold. The measures put in place by the national park seems to be decent as well.
Well, at least they can mostly roam freely until they are sold. The measures put in place by the national park seems to be decent as well.
The way we regulate our National Parks in England is very different to...say... America.
We are currently re-introducing a lot of native species to the UK such as Otters and Red Kites
which is causing some friction with farmers across the land as they claim to be losing livestock and fish.
It's all a balancing act and some control is required.
Hunting is allowed of certain animals such as deer but only in seasons that are strictly adhered to.
In Dartmoor National Park there are privately owned farms and rented farms. If you want to farm in the park
there are rules you have to follow as they try to protect the area from over development or too much modernisation
but they also realise these farmers have to be able to make a living. Again......it is a balancing act and compromises
have to be made on both sides.
They are free to sell their own animals because they are proper farms that have to earn a living to exist.
We are currently re-introducing a lot of native species to the UK such as Otters and Red Kites
which is causing some friction with farmers across the land as they claim to be losing livestock and fish.
It's all a balancing act and some control is required.
Hunting is allowed of certain animals such as deer but only in seasons that are strictly adhered to.
In Dartmoor National Park there are privately owned farms and rented farms. If you want to farm in the park
there are rules you have to follow as they try to protect the area from over development or too much modernisation
but they also realise these farmers have to be able to make a living. Again......it is a balancing act and compromises
have to be made on both sides.
They are free to sell their own animals because they are proper farms that have to earn a living to exist.
Yeah, we have the same problem here, but with wolves (a few came back to germany for whatever reason), and farmers are losing some livestock or the livestock scatters kilometers across the landscape and the farmers have to find them and bring them back. It's a difficult situation indeed. Civilisation shouldn't have grown to be as thick in the first but now that it has it's hard to hand some of the land back to mother nature. In america, especially Canada, it's quite a bit easier because of the lower population as well as natives that are close to nature and help with the reservation.
I think european countries should be aiming to abide by the rules set for national parks internationally. However, that has to be done at a very slow pace over decades because it requires, like you mentioned, a lot of compromises.
I think european countries should be aiming to abide by the rules set for national parks internationally. However, that has to be done at a very slow pace over decades because it requires, like you mentioned, a lot of compromises.