Two Eurasian lynx were spotted just after 4pm on Wednesday 8 January in the Drumguish area of the Highlands in Scotland.
Wildlife conservationists from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) worked overnight with the police to capture the big cats, and condemned the illegal release “in the strongest possible terms”.
“We set live trail cameras near baited traps,” explains David Barclay, manager of the RZSS Saving Wildcats team. “Biosecurity laws mean the cats need to spend 30 days in suitable quarantine facilities.”
When did lynx go extinct in Britain?
There are no wild lynx in the UK, having been driven to extinction around 1,300 years ago. Whilst the species feeds regularly on small mammals and small deer, it can take down larger prey including red deer.
The escape of a young lynx called Lillith in October 2017 from the Borth zoo in Wales caused outrage. First when local sheep started being killed and the post-mortem suggested they may have been hunted by Lillith, and then when the local council took the decision to kill her after two weeks of the zoo failing to recapture her and she started living in a caravan park, posing a danger to its residents.
Could the lynx have been left to roam Scotland?
There have been calls for years for the species to be reintroduced, with various areas proposed for release, including Kielder Forest in Northumberland.
Lynx to Scotland is a partnership of three charities looking to bring the lynx back to Scotland, beginning with a trial reintroduction.
Peter Cairns, executive director of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, one of the charities involved in Lynx to Scotland says, “This is unwelcome and grossly irresponsible, but comes at the worst possible time, when stakeholders are engaging in good faith with productive discussions about the possibility of a responsibly managed and fully resourced legal reintroduction.”
The partnership is unaware of where these two lynx may have come from or who may have released them.
Upon news of the lynxs’ sighting, some conservationists online were hoping that the cats could be left in the wild and be monitored, rather than being recaptured.
However, RZSS says that the release was both irresponsible and reckless, as “it is very unlikely they would have survived in the wild.”
This article by Megan Shersby was first published by Discover Wildlife on 9 January 2025.
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