\n<\/p>\n
C<\/span>ould lynx, the elusive wild cat driven to extinction in Britain more than 1,000 years ago, become the new Loch Ness monster? \u201cWhether Nessie\u2019s there or not, she draws tourists,\u201d said Margaret Luckwell, a resident of Moray, Scotland. \u201cIt would be the same with lynx. I\u2019d love to see a lynx in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckwell\u2019s view is a majority one among local people gathering at village halls across the Highlands, as a painstaking consultation slowly gathers momentum for the apex predator\u2019s return to Scottish forests.<\/p>\n A six-year effort by the Lynx to Scotland coalition of charities does not aim simply to create a supportive majority \u2013 61% of Scots are already in favour, according to a 2025 poll \u2013 but to build acceptance among residents likely to remain opposed to lynx, including farmers, gamekeepers and deer stalkers.<\/p>\n Trees for Life, Scotland: The Big Picture and The Lifescape Project will follow the 42 \u201cinformation sessions\u201d that have taken place over the past month with scores of one-to-one conversations with concerned farmers and other stakeholders this spring, in the hope that the charities can develop a bullet-proof application for a licence to return the animals to Scotland.<\/p>\n The fascination with the shy, labrador-sized predator, which poses no risks to people, was striking at a consultation event that drew 70 people to the village of Fochabers on a bitterly cold day.<\/p>\n Farmers, deer stalkers and foresters were surprised to find the information videos, banners and assembled wildlife charities so blunt about the livelihood complications caused by lynx.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not saying they won\u2019t take sheep \u2013 they absolutely will,\u201d Steve Micklewright, chief executive of Trees for Life, told two visitors. \u201cBut their preferred prey is roe deer. My question is: can we get an animal like this back into the Scottish landscape and coexist with it, which we\u2019ve forgotten how to do?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Steve Micklewright is clear the lynx will \u2018absolutely\u2019 prey on farmers\u2019 sheep.<\/span> Photograph: Alex MacLeod<\/p>\n The charities insist they are presenting facts and seeking to understand how to overcome the \u201cbarriers\u201d to lynx reintroduction. Last year, a 50-hour consultation with 50 stakeholders, including farmers and gamekeepers, identified predation of sheep and game as the main challenges. Now the charities are working out how losses could be compensated for.<\/p>\n Even so, a significant minority are implacably opposed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d asked Rob Green, a visitor to the Fochabers consultation. \u201cAre they going to reintroduce polar bears because polar bear teeth have been found in the north of Scotland? Are the lynx going to stay in the forest and be good creatures and chase the wild deer? Are they not going to come out and take the neighbour\u2019s cat or my dog or a little lamb? It\u2019s people trying to make names for themselves \u2013 \u2018I\u2019ve done this\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ve done that\u2019. When are people going to stop meddling?\u201d<\/p>\n Others at the consultation disagreed. \u201cIt\u2019s all \u2018meddling\u2019,\u201d said Jenny from Garmouth. \u201cThe landscape we have in Scotland is not our natural landscape. It\u2019s been created by the introduction of sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n Trees for Life has spent six years on lynx reintroduction in the Highlands. \u201cWe\u2019ve almost run out of money, if I\u2019m honest,\u201d says Micklewright. They will fundraise to continue and Micklewright says any lynx reintroduction must be self-funding \u2013 including providing compensation \u2013 for at least five years so it is not a burden on government.<\/p>\n Some rewilders criticise Lynx to Scotland\u2019s epic consultation for not making progress. But Micklewright says they have forged a clear pathway to reintroduction.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of when, not if, but the \u2018when\u2019 could be quite a long time away,\u201d he says. \u201cThe government has set us the challenge of being \u2018well supported\u2019 and \u2018broadly accepted\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The latter is crucial, says Micklewright: it means that opponents have the support they have requested in place and will grudgingly accept the lynx rather than persecute reintroduced animals.<\/p>\n <\/span>A lynx in Norway. Four lynx were illegally released into the Cairngorms last year.<\/span> Photograph: Mark Hamblin\/scotlandbigpicture.com<\/p>\n Four lynx were illegally released into the Cairngorms last year, with some speculation it was undertaken by rewilders frustrated by the glacial pace of reintroduction.<\/p>\n As signatories to the Berne convention, the UK is obliged to consider restoring extinct native species. In England, two separate efforts to reintroduce lynx have been focused on Kielder Forest in Northumberland. The Lynx UK Trust this year launched legal action against the government in England for refusing to consider its application for a trial lynx reintroduction.<\/p>\n The rogue Cairngorms release led the first minister, John Swinney, to rule out the legal reintroduction of lynx to Scotland. But Micklewright insists that \u201cpolitically it\u2019s all to play for\u201d, with some MSPs from all parties and some Reform UK candidates supporting lynx reintroduction ahead of Holyrood elections this spring.<\/p>\n Conservationists believe that even if a lynx licence application is rejected on \u201cpolitical\u201d grounds by the Scottish government, that rejection could be challenged in the courts \u2013 if the application is thorough enough.<\/p>\n <\/span>Lisa Chilton: \u2018There\u2019s a risk we consult people endlessly with no end-point.\u2019<\/span> Photograph: Mark Hamblin\/scotlandbigpicture.com<\/p>\n Lisa Chilton, chief executive of Scotland: The Big Picture, said: \u201cThere\u2019s a risk we consult people endlessly with no end-point because there\u2019s always a challenge, there will always be uncertainty and questions remaining about how [reintroducing lynx is] going to unfurl in Scotland.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could use that uncertainty as an excuse never to do anything, but that\u2019s not what we want from this. We all know the urgency of the situation with nature but if you don\u2019t bring society with you it can\u2019t possibly work.\u201d<\/p>\n Is this great grassroots effort softening the lynx-sceptics?<\/p>\n A deer stalker attending the Fochabers session said he was sure there would still be a job for him, because even if slow-reproducing lynx eventually expanded to 250 animals \u2013 the carrying capacity in Highland forests, according to scientists \u2013 they would barely dent Scotland\u2019s million-plus deer population.<\/p>\n A forest manager said she had \u201cabsolutely no issue with lynx\u201d but was concerned that future regulations governing their protection would create \u201chuge\u201d exclusion zones, preventing forestry operations such as the clear-felling of commercial timber. \u201cAs a country that imports 85% of our timber, we can\u2019t be excluding the few areas where we produce timber,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Donald MacLellan used to farm Suffolk sheep and Aberdeen Angus cattle near Maud, Aberdeenshire. \u201cCompensation is very important and it\u2019s important that it is acted upon quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cThe animals are not just numbers. Losses are not just a sheep or a calf \u2013 there can be human generations breeding these animals to get the best.\u201d<\/p>\n That said, MacLellan was ready to accept the lynx. Are the majority of Scottish farmers? \u201cThat I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said, but he cited 20mph speed limits and the smoking ban. \u201cJust do it, and people will accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Could lynx, the elusive wild cat driven to extinction in Britain more than 1,000 years ago, become the new Loch Ness monster? \u201cWhether Nessie\u2019s there or not, she draws tourists,\u201d said Margaret Luckwell, a resident of Moray, Scotland. \u201cIt would be the same with lynx. I\u2019d love to see a lynx in the wild.\u201d Luckwell\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[23433,2494,1007,23432,4359,12937,1259],"class_list":{"0":"post-45547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-highlanders","9":"tag-lynx","10":"tag-return","11":"tag-rewilders","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-wary","14":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}