Fears of ‘rogue rewilding’ in Scottish Highlands after further lynx sightings
For a brief moment this week, lynx have been roaming the Scottish Highlands once again. But this was not the way conservationists had hoped to end their 1,000-year absence.
On Wednesday, Police Scotland received reports of two lynx in a forest in the Cairngorms national park, sparking a frantic search. That episode ended in less than a day. Both animals were quickly captured by experts from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and taken to quarantine facilities at Highland wildlife park.
Yet their delight at a successful operation was short-lived. Early on Friday morning, the RZSS’s network of wildlife cameras caught two more lynx in the same stretch of forest, near Kingussie. The baited traps were redeployed and its specialists went hunting again, before the additional lynx were safely captured at about 6.30pm.
Speculation has erupted over who was responsible for the illegal release, and police said inquiries were continuing to establish the full circumstances. The lynx – which are shy, solitary animals in the wild and not dangerous to humans – appeared tame and showed little sign of being able to survive on their own, according to a witness. The witness said the lynx were found near straw bedding left beside a layby with dead chicks and porcupine quills.
