Reintroducing Lynx to Scotland
By Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North
Last week in the Scottish Parliament the Scottish Government presented its Biodiversity Strategy to 2045.
The strategy is the starting point in a process leading to the development of rolling delivery plans and, through the introduction of a Natural Environment Bill, statutory nature restoration targets.
Unfortunately, Scotland currently ranks 28th from the bottom in the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII). A global analysis on how much human activity has impacted nature.
Of the 27 EU member states, 23 of them – 85% – rank higher than Scotland in BII.
Across Europe, increased awareness, hunting bans and habitat restoration have thankfully resulted in a gradual comeback of many native species in recent decades.
European bison populations have increased by 399% since 1971 and they again roam Germany and Poland, performing their role as ‘keystone’ species: helping to maintain partially wooded landscapes by eating huge amounts of shrubbery.
Due to our island geography, every reintroduction in Britain has to be carried out by humans.
Following a successful five-year trial, the SNP Government in 2016 returned beavers to the wild in Scotland.
This milestone moment marked the first successful reintroduction of a mammal to the UK.
From beavers to sea eagles and red kites, reintroducing native species has been a success. That is why, following her statement at Holyrood, I asked Biodiversity Minister, Lorna Slater MSP about the potential reintroduction of the Eurasian Lynx to Scotland.
Eurasian lynx are medium-sized native wildcats around the size of a Labrador which have been extinct in Britain for around 500 years. They are crepuscular, meaning they’re active during dawn and dusk and spend most of the day asleep.
Lynx prey predominantly on medium-sized woodland deer such as roe and sika deer, and the calves of red deer.
Most people will be aware that deer can strip bark from trees, making the trees prone to disease. The more trees are stripped, the faster a disease can spread, causing large numbers to perish. Deer also frequently eat young trees before they’ve had a chance to grow.
That is why Forestry and Land Scotland currently sets cull targets which aim to return deer numbers to a sustainable level.
Lynx would greatly benefit this: they would maintain balance and diversity, being essential for healthy ecosystems as they help regulate the numbers and behaviour of deer and some smaller carnivores.
As was the case in Scotland, the lynx was sadly hunted to extinction in western Europe, due to a combination of loss of woodland, the collapse of wild deer populations, and hunting by humans. However, due to a mix of legal protection and reintroductions, the lynx is making a slow recovery. It has been reintroduced in several European countries, including Germany, Switzerland and France. In 2020 photos provided indisputable proof that lynx has also returned to Belgium, without human interference.
An application to trial the reintroduction of lynx into the Kielder Forest in Northumberland was rejected by the UK Government in 2018.
Understandable concerns regarding livestock predation were raised by farmers. However, the reality is that deer are by far the preferred prey of lynx and even in the event that lynx hunt livestock, predation risk from lynx, an efficient stalk-and-ambush predator is significantly higher in areas with dense vegetation.
That is also the reason why Norway, where sheep tend to be kept in wooded areas, is the only European country where livestock predation causes issues.
Research demonstrates that if sheep are kept in pastures slightly removed from woodland margins, regularly monitored and with high populations of deer, lynx tend not to bother them.
An analysis from consulting firm AECOM, found that a lynx will take an average of just one sheep every two and a half years. Of course, an adequate compensation scheme would have to be put in place for livestock farmers in the rare event of predation.
A Swiss study showed that even in peak years, the losses of sheep due to lynx predation never exceeded 0.2-0.4% of local stock.
The study argued that:
“The problem is rather emotional than economic. To promote the coexistence of people and lynx, we need a pragmatic approach, considering also the socio-cultural aspects of the controversy. Conservation of the lynx population can only be achieved when local people are considered.”
A study carried out by the Lynx to Scotland partnership, which is made up by Trees for Life, Lifescape and Scotland: The Big Picture, (and can be read here) sought to assess the social feasibility of potential lynx reintroduction through consultation with stakeholders and communities in the Cairngorms National Park and Argyll.
It found that there was sufficient support for lynx reintroduction amongst stakeholders. It is clear that the benefits of reintroduction far outweigh the threats.
Wildlife inspires and enriches our lives, contributes to our wellbeing and underpins the ecosystems that we need to survive.
It is a moral duty to rectify the historic wrong of lynx extinction in Scotland by a controlled reintroduction once the necessary ecological and practical assessments have been undertaken.
At the same time, deer are a major reason that Britain’s forest cover remains at just one-third of the EU average. A gradual and monitored reintroduction of lynx would play its part in keeping deer numbers at a sustainable level and thus contribute to Scotland eventually achieving net zero.
It is currently not SNP Government policy to reintroduce lynx, however I am keen to further push for their extinction to be reversed with a Members’ Debate in the Scottish Parliament.
Please let me know your thoughts by emailing Kenneth.gibson.msp@parliament.scot
