Reintroduction of Lynx into Scotland

unlacedgecko

Well-Known Member
I was reading in the BBC Wildlife Magazine this month that there is an argument for the re-introduction of Lynx cats to Scotland. Thoughts?
 
As long as they dont do that down here, have enough trouble with small cats sh**ing in my garden - can't imagine the mess a lynx would make.
 
In the Vosges valley in Alsace where I always went on family holidays, they started reintriducing Lynx about 25 years ago, with no real noticeable success. The whole place had healthy populations of roe, red deer and chamois on the rockfalls. You'd hear and read about the lynx, but i didn't ever seem that they were taking a pawhold. Then about maybe 7-8 years ago, a female managed to successfully rear a litter, teach them to hunt and go off and fend for themselves, and now there's no stopping them! Roe and chamois populations fell by about 50%, much to the dismay of local hunters and tourists who had becoming accustomed to being easily able to see and photograph the chamois.

Honestly, it was unusual for chamois to be this carefree anyway. People assume they've all gone, but the ones that are around have just become better at hiding. As for the roe, there used to be loads and loads, and now there are just loads, which is still plenty. The lynx population appears to have stabilised at a new level of equilibrium. Hunters just need to up their game a bit, they'd had it too easy before! Lynx are better at it. Interestingly, in Quebec a lynx is called a "loup-cervier", or "stag wolf", which makes their preferred diet clear. They don't seem to be particularly keen on goats and sheep.

Now I'm waiting to see what happens when numbers of wolves build up again. They seem to be very keen on domestic livestock indeed!
 
Having seen first hand over here in Norway the effects that they have on roe deer populations, I really hope for your sake it does not go ahead!

I have watched areas, mine included with good populations of roe deer be decimated in one season!

IMAG0037.jpg


IMAG0038.jpg


IMAG0039.jpg


IMAG0040.jpg


It's a very hot topic over here in Norway, the hunting of the lynx is restricted to quotas across whole regions, so if they shoot the very small quota in one small town for example, the hunting stops for the whole region! :( :doh:
 
As we've seen the only argument the green nutters will accept for shooting is that it is necessary to manage the numbers for welfare reasons. The various do-gooder organisations have recently been building quite strong support for this argument as the only reason for shooting deer - look at the recent TV coverage of deer stalking for instance. Add big cats and you remove what appears, and has been carefully estabished, as the only justification for shooting deer. The media and the green nutters will then make the case that as the only reason for shooting was population management and as there is now a natural way to do this shooting must be banned. They've been building this case for a while now.

In my view all reintroductions should be trialled in Hyde Park in London for 10 years before being forced upon the people of Scotland. In my experience all the people pushing for such things tend to live within the M25 and they always, for some reason, want to force their nutty ideas on Scotland. This is racism of the first order and for this reason anything they think is a good idea should first be tested in their own front yard before being forced upon crofting communities hundreds of miles away. So, lets have big cats, bears and wolves in Hyde Park for 10 years before we make up our minds.
 
I'm sure any introduction to scotland would have to get past SNH and the scottish parliament first. So stop blaming your woes on those down south.
 
This mirrors the argument about the reintroduction of wolves across the pond here. They did it and game numbers have plummeted. Now we have a wolf season and we are trying to get them under control. IMO it's a double edged sword, game numbers are down but we have a new species to hunt on the landscape and a wolf makes a very fine trophy. I hope we can bring balance back to our herds, and I hope I shoot a wolf next season!
 
As we've seen the only argument the green nutters will accept for shooting is that it is necessary to manage the numbers for welfare reasons. The various do-gooder organisations have recently been building quite strong support for this argument as the only reason for shooting deer - look at the recent TV coverage of deer stalking for instance. Add big cats and you remove what appears, and has been carefully estabished, as the only justification for shooting deer. The media and the green nutters will then make the case that as the only reason for shooting was population management and as there is now a natural way to do this shooting must be banned. They've been building this case for a while now.

In my view all reintroductions should be trialled in Hyde Park in London for 10 years before being forced upon the people of Scotland. In my experience all the people pushing for such things tend to live within the M25 and they always, for some reason, want to force their nutty ideas on Scotland. This is racism of the first order and for this reason anything they think is a good idea should first be tested in their own front yard before being forced upon crofting communities hundreds of miles away. So, lets have big cats, bears and wolves in Hyde Park for 10 years before we make up our minds.

Could not agree more with you Caorach but it seems palmer mikes reply is the old North ~ South divide. Once established Lynx would spread North and South and devastate Deer populations. I'm sure anti's read our threads so less of the North ~ South divide and all shooting people stand united as, divided we are conquered. REMEMBER the HUNTING BAN CAME FROM WESTMINSTER

JImbo 30-06
 
Last edited:
Lynx will decimate your roe population. They are quite capable of taking fallow. They have no problem dealing with a lab size dog.
 
Things like this really boil my blood:evil: WHY do need to waste the vast ammount of money to make it a success (same as with the beavers) when there is so many other ways the money would be more benefical, esp when the countries broke

We already have a truely wild native wild cat only jist surviving and no more, possibly only 400ish left althou some may be hybridisied with domestic tabbies, it makes polar bears, pandas etc to have a stable population. Yet u rarely hear anything about it.
Never mind the plight of capercallie. black grouse and red squirrles.

4 native species off the top of my head that probably will be extinct in scotland/uk within 20-30 years and no one gives a toss and they want to waste money reintroducing another predator. The really depressing fact is some off these species used to be so common they actually provided a shootable surpluss every year.

Modern conversationists really depress me, will they ever wake up and see the damage they've done to the countryside
 
Could be worse. Dr David Bowman of the University of Tazmania is putting together a very convincing case for releasing elephants in Autralia.
 
Looks like MTLION from Montana will have a new job over here, chasing the bloody Lynx up the nearest tree, keep the Lynx out of this country.
Cheers
Richard
 
Having seen first hand over here in Norway the effects that they have on roe deer populations, I really hope for your sake it does not go ahead!

I have watched areas, mine included with good populations of roe deer be decimated in one season!

Very interesting, are these re introduced Lynx in those areas you're referring to? and do you happen to know if any studies have been made into this? it feels as though we should get armed with some facts to put before the inevitable committees that will be sitting discussing this.
As noted above, the bunny fiddlers are amassing a fair bit of support for re-introduction of lynx to keep deer numbers down, it would be great to see data from countries where they've tried it already.
 
Looks like MTLION from Montana will have a new job over here, chasing the bloody Lynx up the nearest tree, keep the Lynx out of this country.
Cheers
Richard

From those trail cam pics I'd sure like to have a go at them! Not quite a lynx but a bobcat...

bobcat1.jpg


We have lynx here but they are protected and there is no harvest.
 
Back
Top