https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/09/two-lynx-released-loose-scotland-scottish-highlands
Anyone got any additional background on this story yet?
Is it true, for example?
Oh boy, this is me glued to Scottish Game Hunting social media comments for the day...
Also @scotroutes LOLZ at the sighting location. What tarp for Lynx claws?
It's definitely true. They have been released.
Frustrating for all - as the article below quotes Pete Cairns and others, this goes against everything a lot of people have pent years working slowly towards.
My suspicion is that there's a good idea of who might be behind this.. Lynx are not exactly pets, and no self respecting organisation is going to do this, and there's only a small group of Lynx owners....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6z61ylj40o
It does potentially set back the plans to reintroduce them properly, and as Matt says, can't be too hard to know where they are from.
Will be interesting to follow, I just hope the animals don't come to any harm.
That's the thing; are these animals wild enough to survive without the support that a formal programme might have provided?
Getting them here and ready for release is a tricky process that takes a lot of planning. Which genetic pool are they from and is it suitable for deer hunting, for example?
I bet that the official groups must be raging...
Where I live in Angus, the illegal beaver release has turned out to be a great success, from a conservationist perspective but even with protection, scores are still being shot here annually. Imagine the irony, if the Kingussie lynx ate the newly introduced Strathspey beavers..
It does potentially set back the plans to reintroduce them properly
Although that said those plans are being completely scuppered regardless. I have wondered for a while whether any have been released and just not been noticed.
If they are a recent introduction and have already been noticed it doesnt suggest they were well chosen.
and there’s only a small group of Lynx owners….
I would assume they would have been imported and so not appear on the dangerous animals list. I doubt it would be hard to dodge/confuse customs.
The Highland Wildlife park folk managed to capture the 2 Lynx last night. There statement says they are sending them down to Edinburgh zoo to be assessed.
Pity I was going to use them to help me set a KOM at the Drumguish off road climb ?
Wonder why they were so easy to catch?
Reminds me of the escaped Wolf in Berkshire, went for a walk, got tired climbed into the back of a truck and was taken home.
Nae food and it’s freezing . Reckon they just walked about the woods dangling a fish from Joes chipper in Kingussie.
Cairngorms lynx - tbf it's not one of their better deodorants...
Wonder why they were so easy to catch?
Would suggest they were pets/zoo animals vs wild ones caught in Europe and then introduced here.
Anyone with half an ounce of sense would release in spring surely?
Wonder why they were so easy to catch?
If they are from Africa they would have been dead easy to find. Just follow all of the women running towards them wearing furry bikinis.
Best time to release would perhaps be early summer, when the roe deer are producing a new crop of bambi for them to catch easily.
Similar situation to the Worcestershire panther? Hopefully the locals have pedalled fast enough!
I don't think they would have lasted long regardless of the weather. There's a guy who shoots on the land surrounding us, mostly deer. He's got an array of kit to make the SAS blush - he can basically see everything night and day. It's incredible and sad at the same time, nothing is safe.
Anyone heard from perchypanther lately?
Anyone with half an ounce of sense would release in spring surely?
Late spring/summer so lots of prey.
Depends where you are getting your animals from as well. If going for wild then I think later since would want to catch the young lynx as they are leaving their mother.
Similar situation to the Worcestershire panther
The beast of Belbroughton? That was my cat!
Anyone heard from perchypanther lately?
I’m currently freezing my tits off in a layby on the A9 wearing only a furry bikini in the hope that someone tries to entice me into a van with a sausage supper.
You have to take your chances when you get them.
Here’s me thinking this was a special Scottish Christmas edition of a deodorant.
@dissonance Aren't lynx meant to be fairly shy and normally avoid people? It's not a great leap then that someone who knew what they were doing could release them somewhere sparsely populated without anyone noticing...
He’s me thinking this was a special Scottish Christmas edition of a deodorant.
It'd be a strange aroma - probably like a mix of Buckfast with a hint of deep fried food.
I assume they caught the lynx by putting out a couple of big cardboard boxes and just waiting?
It's quite nice running down that way tbf.
somewhere sparsely populated without anyone noticing…
I'm honestly not convinced there's anywhere in the UK, that is both sparsely populated enough for them to not be spotted directly or by signs of there presence, and suitable for Lynx, in the UK.
Wonder if I am one of a select few to have seen a Lynx in the wild without actually going out to look for them!
First night of a roadtrip, car-camping in Alaska, drove way up into the hills on a fireroad just outside Anchorage and there was one walking along the track bold as brass. We even drove alongside him long enough for me to get a blurred photo (old school slide lost in the attic somewhere). We spoke to loads of native Alaskans on our 4 week trip but none of them had ever seen a lynx in the wild so we must have been extremely fortunate. Before our flight home we camped up the same track and I was able to have a tete a tete with a wolf not 20 meters from the tent while I went out of the tent for a pee in the early hours. Fantastic country if anyone ever gets the chance to visit.
The next planned beaver release is in Glen Affric. I imagine that would work for lynx too, though maybe not simultaneously. Paul Listers estate at Allerdale might also be a candidate. He'd done some preparatory work, though that did include fencing in the whole area.
Oh, do you have any links?
Not anymore. I had two until yesterday...
Oh, do you have any links?
… or, failing that, square and tattie scone?
been captured
They found a couple of trappers on Lynkdin
Surely the trappers would have been on Lynxskin
Cairngorms lynx – tbf it’s not one of their better deodorants…
Smells of heavy with top-notes of boiled haggis!
They're out there...
Very good, r-m. To be fair, it's a fairly distinctive profile, even if it does then show your age...
Well, lynx are supposed to eat beaver ? and in the wild, they are the main predator for the giant rodent. They represent one of the main reasons that beavers are both nocturnal and quite shy.
And presumably why lynx are also nocturnal?
That’s the thing; are these animals wild enough to survive without the support that a formal programme might have provided?
Seems that was both the big concern of those seeking to capture them and the reason they were easy to capture - seems they were not habituated to hunting and so a big fat sausage* on a stick (sorry perchy, they clearly nicked yours) in a cage seems to have worked....
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*pure speculation.
BBC news has various quotes from the formal reintroduction programme.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6z61ylj40o
There's footage in crazy legs link just prior to capture, and one of the Lynx is wandering around within a very short distance of multiple people. Suggests animals used to captivity?
