Country Life
Trending: A Eurasian Lynx cub. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
The question of whether to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx is to be put to the public of Scotland via a consultation being run by a group of charities.
It is hoped that the apex predators will help keep exploding populations of deer under control in the Scottish Highlands and conservationists believe that there is enough space to support a population of some 200 animals.
It is thought that the last lynx in the UK died about 500 years ago, but, since the 1970s, the predators have been slowly reintroduced in several European countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, France, Slovenia and Croatia, among others.
Eurasian lynx are native to Britain, but were driven to extinction 500 years ago
They now live in mainland Europe, and are thought to pose no threat to humans
A new study aims to understand if people would be willing to live with the cats
Experts hope that if lynx are reintroduced in Scotland, they would prey on roe deer, providing a free and efficient deer management service
Should Scotland once again have big cats roaming wild in Highland forests? scotsman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scotsman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New plan to introduce a predator to Scotland after 1000 years will help save forests IT is the forgotten predator that disappeared from Scotland due to fur hunting and habitat loss over 1000 years ago. Since then the British countryside has been devoid of large carnivores and any memory of living alongside anything larger than a fox or badger has been lost with the brown bear and the wolf also now absent from the landscape. Now new plans have been revealed to reintroduce one predator to Scotland - the Eurasian lynx, which is considered the most suitable candidate for carnivore restoration in Britain.