The last wolf in Scotland was reputedly killed in 1743, after it had killed a woman and her two children, on the upper reaches of the river Findhorn in Morayshire, two years before the Young Pretender (Bonny Prince Charlie) landed to start the 1745 uprising which ultimately led to the destruction of the clan system and the Scots diaspora. In reality it probably took until the end of the same century before the wolf was truly extinct here.

For many centuries before the grey wolf co-existed with man in Scotland. The ancient race of the Picts commemorated them on their standing stone monuments, including one that is no more than a mile from where I am now, the High Keillor stone which is set on a vantage point overlooking the whole of the Strathmore Valley. Sadly the wolf on that stone is now barely visible, but when it was carved the wolf would have been a common sight hereabouts.

So this afternoon we had a family expedition to the Deer Centre, a wild life park in Fife, where they have recently acquired three young male wolves. Watching them being fed and watching and listening to the crowd of parents and young children it was easy to see why the wolf was doomed, and perhaps why, in spite of our so-called civilisation, we are still afraid of what it represents in terms of intelligence, ferocity and stamina.

The main reason for the visit (apart from the fact it was far too sunny a day to stay indoors) was to see an old friend, an American Bald Eagle, nicknamed 'Eagly-Beagly'. Owned by a friend of ours, a local falconer, it has a badly disfigured foot, the result of a misdiagnosis by a vet (veterinarian) when young. It can fly, but would never survive in the wild.

Our friend the falconer nursed it back to health and used to keep it in an aviary close to the back door of his house where it would greet visitors with its characteristic cries. Now moved to the Deer Centre it has acquired its first full set of plumage, and though its foot is still crippled and useless, it is in much better general health. It may be possible, via prosthetic surgery, to rebuild the eagle's leg and foot and if anyone reading this in the USA happens to know a friendly and patriotic millionaire or big corporation, then please get in touch.

So the moral of this story is, I suppose, that we as humans should mark our so-called progress, not by our technology, but our understanding and attitude towards the other creatures on this planet and how we affect their survival, for they surely affect ours.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm no soft-centred environmentalist, both wolves and eagles are, like us, top predators, but we are infinitely more dangerous because unlike them, we kill our own, and ourselves, with our ignorance and greed and prejudice. If we don't recognise this, then, like the Scottish wolves, the convenience of their disappearance from our environment surely foretells our own.