Lynx likely to predate on sheep and lambs if reintroduced, study finds
It suggested an effective management system could include paying farmers for losses and co-existence, with relocation or lethal control as 'necessary components' of any framework to manage the issue.
The report also found that lynx could have a 'significant' impact on gamebirds in places where the species come into contact, though they are unlikely to play a major part in the animals' diet at a national level.
But it found there is 'sufficient quantity and quality of habitat' in Scotland to support a viable lynx population.
And the report said that the predators, while not a 'silver bullet', could help with deer population control and could help other species.
The report outlines conclusions and recommendations agreed following a nine-month discussion which involved 53 stakeholders including farming and landowner organisations, gamekeepers, conservationists, foresters and tourism operators.
The National Lynx Discussion was organised by the Lynx to Scotland partnership which is assessing the feasibility of reintroducing the Eurasian lynx to the Scottish Highlands for the first time in about 1,300 years.
Steve Micklewright, chief executive of Trees for Life and a member of the stakeholder group, said: 'We met 12 times for over 50 hours in total. Deep and extensive discussions allowed us to learn lessons from lynx reintroductions in Europe, assess possible impacts if lynx are returned to Scotland, and recommend key actions to avoid or manage potential problems.
'While not everyone who took part supports the return of lynx, we now have a clear understanding of what needs to be put in place if a reintroduction is to happen.
'The Lynx to Scotland partnership must now work out if and how the recommendations can be delivered, and take that out to local consultation when we have clear proposals.'
When considering the impact on deer populations the report said that lynx could help achieve a more 'natural balance of species' within the ecosystem, though noted that they are unlikely to replace culling by humans or the impact of weather.
They may also have a positive impact on species of conservation concern such as capercaillie, black grouse and wildcats by preying on 'mesopredators', particularly foxes.
The report acknowledged that there might be 'some concern around the public safety aspect of having a large carnivore in the landscape.'
However, it noted that lynx are 'secretive animals which are rarely encountered by humans in the wild in their current natural range' and said there are no recorded instances of healthy lynx attacking people.
The report stated that lynx pose no realistic threat to humans and said the predators 'should not discourage anyone from letting their children play in the woods'.
It also noted that despite their elusive nature the presence of lynx could boost income from tourism.
Evidence from Europe suggests that merely the knowledge that a large carnivore exists in the landscape is enough to increase visitor numbers and significantly increase tourism income, according to the report.
Any reintroduction of lynx would need approval from the Scottish Government, which would follow ecological assessments and a full public consultation.
Stakeholder group member Andrew Bauer, who has experience of species reintroduction policy in Scotland, said: 'Our recommendations aim to address the fact that we agreed there could be negative impacts on some rural livelihoods if lynx were reintroduced without proper checks and balances to prevent problems or manage them.'
Lynx to Scotland is a partnership between Trees for Life, Scotland: The Big Picture and the Lifescape Project.
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Spectator
4 days ago
- Spectator
Does Northumberland really want to see the return of lynx?
Farming is hard, and sheep farming especially so. Sheep are endearing but awkward creatures, generally looking for the most inconvenient way to die. The weather is usually miserable. Lambing is an annual torment. The government is always dreaming up new ways to make things harder. In a real sense, I'm writing this because sheep farming is so hard. That's what persuaded me to leave the bleak, beautiful hills of Northumberland and make my living from writing and talking in bland, warm rooms in London. But my heart is still there, in the hills. My family too, and their sheep. So I continue to take an interest in the life of rural Northumberland, including in various attempts by well-meaning campaigners to reimagine the place as a stage for their environmental dreams. One such dream is the reintroduction of the lynx. For several years now, various groups have been pushing for the release into the Northumbrian countryside of the Eurasian lynx. These are magnificent beasts whose advocates say could play a vital role in local ecosystems. Not everyone is entirely persuaded, however. If you spend your waking life trying to keep sheep alive, the idea of 70-odd pounds of teeth and claws prowling your fields at night might just raise a few questions. But such doubts would spoil the story that lynx advocates appear keen to tell. Even though previous attempts to bring the lynx to Northumberland have been roundly rejected by local people, the lynx people are undeterred and continue to make their pitch. The latest drive comes from the Missing Lynx Project, a coalition of wildlife groups. It's got some headlines this week with a report that it says shows strong public support for releasing lynx into Northumberland's Kielder Forest and the surrounding areas of Cumbria and southern Scotland. Here's how they put it in their press release: A year-long social consultation has found that 72 per cent of people in the project area of Northumberland, bordering areas of Cumbria and southern Scotland, support potential lynx reintroduction. That line has already bounced around the media: '72 per cent of people in the region support their reintroduction', the BBC reports faithfully. Except that's not what the actual report says. This report details a commendably serious and reflective attempt to examine public opinion relating to lynx introduction. But that attempt is based on a large exercise in sampling bias. The 72 per cent figure comes from a self-selecting group drawn from people who visited a pro-lynx exhibition, attended talks, or voluntarily filled in a questionnaire organised by the same group campaigning for the reintroduction. These aren't ordinary members of the public drawn at random and representative of the wider population – they're the already-engaged, the already-interested, the already-convinced. Here's what the paper actually says about the survey data: As the questionnaire collected data from the 'active voice,' people who are interested in the topic or that have engaged with the project, the respondents that answered the questionnaire may not reflect the results at a regional or national population level. Compare and contrast that with the press release and headlines about 72 per cent of people in and around Northumberland backing the return of the lynx to Northumberland. The detail of that self-selecting sample is even more interesting. Of the 1,075 people in the area who completed the pro-lynx survey, no less than 42.9 per cent are employed in the 'environment and conservation' sectors. So, far from showing that the general public in Northumberland supports a controversial conservation project, the latest bit of lynx-lobbying actually shows that a lot of people who work in conservation and who engaged with a pro-lynx conservation project are in favour of a lynx-based conservation project. At the same time as spinning its consultation report, the pro-lynx camp is also highlighting a new paper in the Journal of Environmental Management which uses data analysis to show that Kielder Forest in Northumberland would be a lovely place to introduce a few dozen large carnivores. Again, it's a serious bit of work by academics and wildlife experts who earnestly believe that giving Britain some 'top carnivores' would have real ecological benefits. I'm sure they mean well. But the overall impression given by those two documents this week is of a coalition with an idée fixe – a pre-determined desire to let lynx loose somewhere, anywhere, in the UK. Quite where doesn't seem to matter to the lynx lobby, just so long as it's good for the big cats. The data paper is an overt attempt to identify places that would suit lynx. It devotes far less space to anyone else's needs. There are neat statistical estimates for how many lynx might be killed by cars, but no such modelling of potential livestock losses. All local farmers get – tucked away in an annex – is an airy concession that it is 'possible' the lynx would eat their sheep if deer populations turn out to be lower than expected: Although the current evidence from Europe suggests lynx do not frequently target livestock, it is possible that smaller livestock, such as sheep, might be predated in areas close to suitable lynx habitats or if wild prey species are of lower abundance. From the perspective of people who farm sheep for a living, that's not something to ignore. Hence, every time before that when the lynx lobbyists have tried to push big cats into Kielder, local opposition has blocked them. In 2015, the (Wales-based) Lynx UK Trust proposed an initial trial release of 18 lynx into Kielder. Farmers objected, warning of threats to livestock and questioning how the animals would be monitored and contained in such a vast and remote forest. The plan was abandoned, for a while. Then in 2018, the trust applied to Natural England for a licence to release six lynx. Defra rejected the application outright, saying it failed to meet international reintroduction guidelines and carried 'a significant risk' to livestock. Yet here we are again in 2025, with pro-lynx claims that – to put it mildly – appear to gloss over the possibility that local people, and farmers in particular, might not be keen on the lynx agenda. I'm not, as such, writing this to oppose that agenda. That would be somewhat hypocritical: I don't live there any longer, so it's not my place to say what should happen there. Instead, my point is that the people who live and farm in Northumberland should be the ones who decide whether large wild carnivores are set free in their woods and fields. The countryside is not a theme park. It's not there to fulfil the fantasies of rewilders looking for Instagrammable biodiversity or policy wins for their mailing lists. It's a working landscape, where people make a hard living from hard land. Those people deserve better than spin and lynx-lobbying.
Scotsman
30-07-2025
- Scotsman
'Genetically unique' forest on 10,000-acre estate in Scottish Highlands given special designation
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A forest on an estate in the Highlands has been given special European designation for its diversity. Rewilding charity Trees for Life said its juniper forest on its Dundreggan estate had been recognised among a European network of genetically important sites known as Gene Conservation Units (GCU). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad GCU status is reserved for long-standing native tree areas that meet a specific criteria. There are at least five more sites in Scotland, with NatureScot's Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve in Wester Ross being the first GCU in the UK for Scots pine in 2019. The others include Ariundle, Creag Meagaidh, Glasdrum and Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserves, which conserve the genetic diversity of a range of native trees between them, including alder, aspen, sessile oak, ash, silver birch, rowan, Scots pine and hazel. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The juniper forest at Dundreggan, to the west of Loch Ness, is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK to achieve such status. Juniper at Dundreggan, an estate owned by Trees for Life near Loch Ness | Trees for Life Juniper is a slow-growing evergreen shrub or small tree, with small blue-green needles and berries that ripen to a dark, blue-purple colour. It is more abundant in the drier, eastern part of the Highlands, where it reaches a larger size. Dundreggan has relatively high rainfall for juniper, with Trees for Life saying this could have driven some local adaptation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The species of tree helps biodiversity by providing shelter and food for a range of wildlife, including insects, mammals and birds. Juniper is also valued for its culinary, medicinal and ritual properties, including use of its berries in game dishes and its role in flavouring gin. Trees for Life said parts of its silver birch woodlands at the 10,000-acre estate also received the classification. Silver birch at Dundreggan | Trees for Life Estate staff said woodlands on the lower part of the estate were home to some 50,000 juniper and 80,000 silver birch. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Commenting on the new status, estate manager Gwen Raes said: 'This designation underlines why letting our ancient woodlands grow back naturally is so important to us at Dundreggan, and it celebrates the remarkable remnants of naturally occurring and locally adapted juniper and silver birch that still survive on the estate. 'The unusually wet location for juniper, and the extreme westerly location of silver birch, have contributed to making their populations at Dundreggan very special. 'Through this designation and further management, we aim to ensure these unique woodlands secure the extra care and attention they need, so they are protected and enhanced going forwards.' Children looking at juniper trees at Dunveggan | Trees for Life Ms Raes said also key to the designation was the estate's use of 'dynamic conservation', which helps protect the trees' genetic diversity. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Genetic diversity, she said, was essential for nature's resilience to pressures such as climate change and diseases, allowing populations to adapt to new pests, pathogens or other pressures. The network of GCUs in the UK are managed by Forest Research, an organisation that provides research services relevant to UK and international forestry interests. Forest Research scientist Tom Sim said: 'The juniper and silver birch at Dundreggan are naturally occurring without historic planting, and have likely adapted to their local conditions over many generations.
The Herald Scotland
23-07-2025
- The Herald Scotland
Painting of Scotland's oldest wild Scots pine to be unveiled
Proceeds from the sale of the painting, and limited edition prints of it, will go towards conservation charity Trees for Life's work to restore the globally unique pinewoods and save them from being lost forever. The exhibition marks the 800th anniversary of the issuing of the definitive versions of the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest in 1225. The Charter drew together the forest-related rules established by the Magna Carta and is widely regarded as the UK's first environmental legislation. The Caledonian pinewoods – home of iconic Scottish wildlife such as red squirrel, golden eagle, capercaillie and wildcat -– have been reduced to less than 2% of their original area across just 84 officially recognised remnants, scattered across the Highlands and often in poor condition. READ MORE: 'Masterful' painting by Scottish colourist sells for £380,000 at auction Paintings by two Scottish Colourists to go under the hammer Some of the surviving remnants consist of a few ancient trees, known as Granny pines, that are hundreds of years old but have no young trees growing around them to replace them when they die. According to Trees for Life, Dan Llywelyn Hall's painting of the 567-year-old Glen Loyne Pine "brings this situation into stark reality". Steve Micklewright, chief executive of Trees for Life, said: 'Dan's atmospheric painting of the Glen Loyne Pine – standing alone in the dramatic Highland landscape – shows the desperate plight of many of our native pinewoods. His brush strokes say more about the situation than words ever can. 'Scotland's native pinewoods should be playing a key role in the fightback against the nature and climate emergencies, but most are on their last legs. We need urgent landscape-scale restoration and rewilding – backed by the Scottish Government – to save, expand and connect up these precious woodlands before it's too late.' Artist Dan Llywelyn Hall with Glen Lloyne Pine painting at the Society of Antiquaries, London (Image: Malcolm Park)The woodlands once covered 1.5 million hectares of the Highlands, but over time were felled for timber or to create land for grazing. Overgrazing by deer, which browse on young pine saplings, is now the main reason for their continued decline. A detailed analysis by Trees for Life into the condition of most of the known pinewood remnants recently concluded that high impacts from artificially large deer populations are the main barrier to the pinewoods' recovery, and that many of the remnants will be lost without urgent measures to help them recover. At a major conference last autumn, 25 organisations – including charities Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland, and [[pub]]lic agencies Forestry and Land Scotland and NatureScot – agreed to form the Caledonian Pinewood Partnership to boost restoration efforts. Cardiff-born Dan Llywelyn Hall is a painter known for vivid paintings, including landscape and portraiture. His portrait commissions include Her Majesty The Queen in 2013, when Dan became the youngest artist to portray the monarch. He said: 'The Glen Loyne pine has lived through major historical events, including the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, Jacobite Rebellions, creation of the United Kingdom, and Second World War. We must ensure that a new generation of Scots pine can grow that can bear witness to the events of the next 500 years. 'I hope the new Caledonian Pinewood Partnership will be inspired by the Charter of the Forest and develop a new charter for Scotland's pinewoods, one where harmony between nature and human needs is paramount.' The 'Magna Carta 1225: 800th Anniversary Exhibition' at the Society of Antiquaries runs until 19 September, and also features three other newly commissioned paintings by the artist. All depict ancient forests or specific trees alive when the Charter of the Forest was drawn up by representatives of King Henry III in 1217. Following the exhibition, the different paintings will then be sold to raise funds for Trees for Life, the Society of Antiquaries Library and Collection, and other beneficiaries. Many of the surviving Caledonian pinewoods are in ancient forests – land once reserved for the monarch and aristocracy for hunting. The Glen Loyne Pine has been dated to at least 1458 by St Andrews Tree-Ring Laboratory, and is believed to be even older. It is located in a remote ancient woodland of some 57 pines, all several centuries old, scattered through Glen Lloyne in the northwest Highlands.
