Pictures in a forest

[David Paterson]

Lots of woods and forests around Killin, some of them quite wild and unkempt.

[Akira]

They all look somewhat familiar, possibly because the forest appears to be similar to those in Hokkaido.  In such a wild forest, you'll never run out of interesting scenes and objects!

[Bjørn Rørslett]

My guess is this forest originated by planting the spruce trees a long time ago, and that it hasn't been maintained or logged for a while. Give it a few more centuries and it'll be very wild indeed.

I needn't go many hundred meters away from my front entrance to enter such forests back here in Norway, so the sight is very familiar. For some strange reason I feel slightly claustrophobic inside these forests and am not too keen to explore them photographically. Nice to know somebody else does.

[David Paterson]

They all look somewhat familiar, possibly because the forest appears to be similar to those in Hokkaido.  In such a wild forest, you'll never run out of interesting scenes and objects!

Yes, you're right, there is a certain similarity in all coniferous forests. 30 years ago I once spent a day walking through such a forest near Chino, on my way to climb Yatsugatake in winter. It was exactly like Scotland except for the tracks of a black bear in snow alongside the path. I was pretty nervous.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Brown bears haven't been seen for a century near Oslo to my knowledge, but we do have breeding wolves on the outskirts of the city.

[Akira]

Dave and Bjørn,

Here in Japan, wild bares are often seen even in the towns near the mountains or the forrests, due to recent years' scarcity of food.  We have brown bears in Hokkaido, and black bears in the rest of Japanese archipelago.

[David Paterson]

Brown bears haven't been seen for a century near Oslo to my knowledge, but we do have breeding wolves on the outskirts of the city.

Bears disappeared from Scotland many centuries ago. Wolves lasted longer, however, and there are a number of locations which claim to be where the last wolf was killed. Near to where I lived as a child, in east Sutherland, there is a memorial to one such claim, and it seems probable that the last Scottish wolf perished around 1800, somewhere in the county of Sutherland.

[Gary]

I enjoyed my trip through your forest. Thank you David. Here in California, we have plenty of black bears, but until recently no wolves. It seems nearly every week there is a story of a Black bear jumping into a swimming pool in one of the foothill communities surrounding Los Angeles. Wolves have been recently spotted in the far north of the state. The forest services (Federal and State) are doing all they can to promote the natural reintroduction of wolves back into California. Unfortunately, we have lost all our Grizzly bears. The only California Grizzly left are on our state flag.

[David Paterson]

Thanks, Gary (and everybody).

Though in principle I approve of bears, wolves, big cats and so on, actually one of the good things about Scotland is that it still has biggish wilderness areas but there are no big dangerous creatures - you can sleep out under the stars whenever you like - there is nothing that can hurt you. Except maybe another human being. There are people who want to re-introduce bears, wolves, lynx, wolverine and so on - no thank you - I prefer to roam without worry and also - crucially - without carrying a gun.

[Peter Connan]

David, I really like the second one!

Fortunately, we have no bears or wolves around here either (not going to mention elephant, rhino, lion, leopard etc...  ).

Unfortunately, neither do we have many forests that pretty.

[David Paterson]

Thanks, Peter.

I don't know where you are located, but access to woodland and forests is something I would find hard to give up.

[Peter Connan]

David, i live in South Africa and spend as much time as I can afford to in the "bush".

We have a fair amount of it, but also for the most part a rairly dry climate that precludes forests like that.

[Lars Hansen]

Great forest shots David - in the first shot, I cant decide if it's a tree trunk or a rock - looks like a rock. Almost looks like a fossilized  tree.

After almost 200 years of absence wolves have been spotted in Denmark again - in Jutland.