Is Scotland ready for the return of lynx?
An extensive and impartial study to assess people’s views about the possible reintroduction of Eurasian lynx to the Scottish Highlands is being launched this month by a new partnership of the charities SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, Trees for Life and Vincent Wildlife Trust.
Ecological research has shown that extensive areas of Scotland could support lynx, but the charities say returning the shy and elusive animal is less about science and more about people’s willingness to live alongside a species that’s become forgotten on these shores.
The year-long Lynx to Scotland consultation will impartially and accurately assess public and stakeholder attitudes around the idea of lynx reintroduction, including in rural communities.
“With a global biodiversity crisis, we have a responsibility to have open and constructive conversations around restoring key native species to the Scottish landscape – and science shows that apex predators like lynx play a vital ecological role in maintaining healthy living systems,” said Peter Cairns, Executive Director of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.
Lynx are now expanding in range and numbers across mainland Europe as hunting laws are enforced and public attitudes to large predators soften. Several successful lynx reintroductions since the 1970s have brought ecological and environmental benefits to countries more densely populated than Scotland, and in areas used for farming, hunting, forestry and tourism.
As a shy and solitary woodland hunter, lynx are rarely glimpsed and attacks on humans are virtually unknown. Research suggests the Highlands has sufficient habitat – and more than enough roe deer, the cat’s preferred prey – to support around 400 wild lynx.
Steve Micklewright, Chief Executive of Trees for Life, said: “Scotland has more woodland deer than any other European country, and their relentless browsing often prevents the expansion and healthy regeneration of our natural woodlands. By preying on roe deer, lynx would restore ecological processes that have been missing for centuries, and provide a free and efficient deer management service.”
Jenny MacPherson, Science and Research Programme Manager with the Vincent Wildlife Trust, which will lead the study, said: “Reintroducing lynx would inevitably bring challenges. Lynx to Scotland will actively include stakeholders representing the full range of perspectives,in order to produce meaningful conclusions about the level of support or tolerance for lynx, and therefore the likely success of any future reintroduction.”
The Eurasian lynx is native to Britain but was driven to extinction some 500-1,000 years ago through hunting and habitat loss.
Lynx to Scotland runs from January 2021 to February 2022 and is not associated with any other previous or current initiatives to restore lynx to Britain.
For details, see scotlandbigpicture.com/lynx-to-scotland.
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If animals like Wolves and Lynx are good for controlling deer – what’s wring with using dogs? Not to kill the deer, which in my view would be cruel, but simply to disperse them. I’m not suggesting releasing feral dogs into the countryside but using under control dogs to flush and disperse deer from particular areas where they are causing damage. Specifically areas where trees have been felled and are being restocked or where coppice stools have been cut. Coppice stools can be hundreds of years olds and it’s a tragedy when deer kill them. Breeds of dogs can be selected which are biddable and which will not hunt and kill the deer. Collies are perfect for this. Access can be limited according to specific ecological requirements. For example to avoid disturbance to ground nesting birds and where hinds have calves laid up.
giles – hyello. You’ve made your point, thanks.
hyello Mark, How are youy?
One can only wish this study/survey every good fortune. I have seen lynx close at hand in Poland, they are magnificent. Local people there run no risk from them. It is a keystone species for maintaining the natural balance of biodiversity. The effect of reintroducing wolves in Yellow Stone National Park in the USA has had many amazing and totally unforeseen biodiversity benefits.
As is said, the science is much less of an issue compared with peoples psyche on the subject and ways of overcoming that psychological barrier. In this respect I think it is important to clearly demonstrate during the study period that other European countries have reintroduced the Lynx with no ill effects and great benefits. Perhaps having people from those counties to give local talks on the subject is a good idea..
If it was down to just me I would have the Lynx back tomorrow.
They should just be here, we may never see them but just knowing that they were there would be wonderful. Sadly the loudest voices are heard by the politicians, the hunting, shooting and farming cohorts of objection to any change, despite Lynx having almost no effect on any of these activities.
I’d quite like both wolves and lynx here in Devon but I think it’s unlikely in the medium term. Another good use for dogs to manage them though – see Mark’s post of about a year ago with dogs going after wolves in Italy – very exciting! One keystone species I am hopeful to one day get in our little valley is the Beaver. W are only about 20 miles from the nearest so I am hopeful! https://www.luccombe.org/holnicote-beavers-build-a-dam/
Will Lynx predate Muntjac deer as well? If so, Lynx could also be a great help in England where Muntjac are a problem for some growers and on the roads?
Jane I was just thinking that. One has stripped all the leaves of low ivy scrub leaving just the bare stems in a small wood.
Just put a couple of pictures here
https://imgur.com/d4VL8MC
https://imgur.com/Jq0jqt3
Hope thats OK Mark.
“One has stripped all the leaves of low ivy scrub leaving just the bare stems in a small wood” Which is actually fine, but the problem is when they do it all over the place. This is where the ‘landscape of fear’ comes in. Packs of wolves roaming round the countryside continually displace the deer around them. This can be replicated by using dogs in specific locations in the woodland and leaving others alone – and then after a while changing the areas where dogs are employed. Herds of red deer trash areas of woodland, they kill coppice stools which can help create glades with bio diverse edge habitat. Add to this large herbivores such as bison creating havoc in the woodland by pushing over large trees and beavers cutting down trees, building damns and creating ponds. Bears are another large predator we could do with having back, I’m pretty sure bears and wolves would have displaced badgers. Having areas where there are no badgers is just as good a thing as having areas where there are lots. Everything everywhere is not a good recipe for biodiversity. What you really need is a complex mosaic of chaos. Highly stochastic not highly dispersed. I’ve spent the last two weeks laying waste to about an acre of my woods with a chain saw. Some areas I’ve cleared completely, others are a big tangled mess of brash, I’ve taken a lot of wood out but I’ve left lots of log piles, or coppice stems where they lie and a big trunk which I can’t be arsed to cut up. I’m thinking about ring barking a tree to let it die standing and in the summer I will start to hand dig a pond. I don’t have the missing keystone species but I am doing my best to replicate their effect with chainsaw, shovel and dog.
It would be great to have these predators back, plus wolves. But we’d be deluding ourselves if we think they will reduced the burgeoning deer population of the UK. They will, I’m sure create a landscape of fear for deer, and that will have impications for the development of new habitats where deer previously were settled, but lynx alone are not going to get the red deer population of 360,000-400,000 down to anywhere near 5 per sq km necessary for woodland regeneration. We will need pressure on deer managers to achieve this. Lynx will likely have some imapct on roe deer in forestry/woodland and it will take monitoring and research to see quite what that is.
Hopefully they will have an impact on fox numbers and activity too…and if I dare say it, feral cats?
One of the rather weak objections to getting lynx back put forward by some is that they’ll compete with wildcats. If they curtail over grazing by deer that will help re-establish a shrub layer that’s better for wildcats and they’ll also kill quite a few foxes which are a much bigger competitor with the lynx’s smaller relative. There’s not been any research on it as far as I know, but a conspicuously coloured, smaller feral cat is surely far more likely to be picked off by a lynx than a shy and hard to see, but larger and more aggressive wildcat. That would be hybridisation threats to wildcat curtailed by lynx as well.
Incidentally I remember the Scottish Gamekeepers Association posting a feature on their facebook page about a potential lynx reintroduction in the Cairngorms. Two commentators claimed if that happened they would just go lamping for them. These are the same people we are expected to believe are not widely responsible for persecuted raptors.
We all need to eat more venison, wild venison not farmed.
foxes kill roe deer too at least when they are young.
Absolutely no point releasing Lynx until our landscape is free from snares, traps and poisoned baits!
Daniel – except that a few photos of snared radio- or satellite-tagged Lynx would probably hasten their removal. Sad to say, but true.