Return of the Wilderness, part 2

[Tartar Horde]

I agree with Binnie and Lightspeed on Rabbits. As animals get larger their population density falls as compared to smaller ones eg, The amount of vegetation a cow eats can support a larger population of smaller animals. Larger animals tend to give birth to fewer offspring and have longer periods between fertility as compared to smaller ones. Rabbits are plentiful now, with better conditions, ie a collapse, then I think they will be increasing in numbers and become a handy source of meat, if you can catch them that is. Depending where you are in the country Roe Deer are very numerous. once again remove industrial agriculture and a large part of the population and they will increase, although at a slower rate than Rabbits. I have a different theory on Wood Pigeons, and I believe they might actually reduce in numbers. My reasoning being that today the Wood Pigeon population is kept unnaturally high by the amount of food they have due to crops like Rape and Peas. With an industrial collapse these crops will not be planted and so Wood Pigeons will have a much reduced food supply, and consequently nature will adjust their numbers to fit the available food.
I fear our Rivers, Ponds and Lakes will take a battering to the point of depletion. Once people work out that it is easier to net Fish than hunt with Gun or Bow it will open season on all fish, a lot of them are literally "fish in a barrel" and very easy to catch. With a decent Cast net/Gill net you can empty a pond in short time.
The core of the argument is how much damage will a dispersed urban population have on the Flora and Fauna of the UK. This is a tricky question to answer as the outcome depends on the survivability of the post urban population. We can't make assumptions as to who is likely too, and who not, because there are too many variables to ascertain any sound conclusion. For instance a fit 18 year old Male would be expected on face value to have more of a chance than a 65 year old Woman, but on closer inspection we find the young Male has no knowledge of anything to do with Fishing, Hunting etc, whereas the 65 year old Woman used to snare Rabbits with her Dad, the whole picture changes. The opposite is also true. Any impact a post urban population would have on animals is dependent on their ability to affect their numbers through killing. For anyone not familiar with field sports the learning curve isn't just steep, it's near vertical if we believe the average person is capable of resorting to hunting at the drop of a hat to feed themselves and any dependents. So the impact on game might not be as bad as some scenarios predict, with most of the population starved to death, harder to catch animals like Rabbits and Deer might fare quite well.