Lynx could return to Scotland – but can rewilders win over wary Highlanders? | Scotland

CCould the lynx, the elusive wildcat driven to extinction in Britain more than 1,000 years ago, become the new Loch Ness Monster? “Whether Nessie is there or not, she attracts tourists,” said Margaret Luckwell, a resident of Moray, Scotland. “It would be the same with the lynx. I would love to see a lynx in the wild.”

Luckwell’s view is in the majority among locals gathering in Highland village halls, as careful consultation slowly gathers momentum for the return of the apex predator to Scotland’s forests.

A six-year effort by the Lynx to Scotland coalition of charities aims not simply to create a favorable majority – 61% of Scots are already in favor, according to a 2025 poll – but to generate acceptance among residents who may remain opposed to the lynx, including farmers, gamekeepers and deer trackers.

Trees for Life, Scotland: The Big Picture and The Lifescape Project will follow the 42 ‘information sessions’ which have taken place over the past month with dozens of one-on-one conversations with affected farmers and other stakeholders this spring, in the hope that the charities can develop a foolproof application for a license to bring the animals back to Scotland.

Fascination with the shy, Labrador-sized predator, which poses no risk to humans, was evident at a consultation meeting which attracted 70 people to the village of Fochabers on a freezing day.

Farmers, deer trackers and foresters were surprised to find the information videos, banners and wildlife charities assembled so outspoken about the livelihood complications caused by lynx.

“We’re not saying they won’t take sheep – they absolutely will,” Trees for Life chief executive Steve Micklewright told two visitors. “But their favorite prey is deer. My question is: can we reintroduce an animal like this to the Scottish landscape and coexist with it, which we have forgotten how to do?”

The charities insist they are presenting facts and seeking to understand how to overcome “barriers” to lynx reintroduction. Last year, a 50-hour consultation with 50 stakeholders, including farmers and gamekeepers, identified sheep and game predation as the main challenge. Charities are now considering how losses could be compensated.

Despite this, a significant minority is implacably opposed to it.

“For what?” asked Rob Green, a visitor to the Fochabers consultation. “Are they going to reintroduce polar bears because polar bear teeth were found in the north of Scotland? Are lynx going to stay in the forest and be good creatures and hunt wild deer? Are they not going to go out and take the neighbor’s cat or my dog or a little lamb? These are people trying to make a name for themselves: ‘I did this’ or ‘I did that’. When are people going to stop get involved?”

Others at the consultation disagreed. “It’s just interference,” said Jenny from Garmouth. “The landscape we have in Scotland is not our natural landscape. It was created by the introduction of sheep.”

Trees for Life has dedicated six years to re-introducing the lynx to the Highlands. “To be honest, we’re almost out of money,” Micklewright says. They will raise funds to continue and Micklewright says any lynx reintroduction must be self-funding – including providing compensation – for at least five years so it does not pose a burden on the government.

Some rewilders criticize Lynx during epic consultations in Scotland for failing to make progress. But Micklewright says they have charted a clear path to reintroduction.

“It’s a question of when, not if, but the ‘when’ could be quite far away,” he says. “The government has challenged us to be ‘well supported’ and ‘widely accepted’.”

This last point is crucial, Micklewright believes: it means that opponents have the support they have asked for and will grudgingly accept the lynx rather than persecute the reintroduced animals.

Four lynx were illegally released into the Cairngorms last year, with some speculation it was undertaken by rewilders frustrated by the glacial pace of reintroduction.

As a signatory to the Berne Convention, the UK is obliged to consider the restoration of extinct native species. In England, two separate efforts to reintroduce the lynx have focused on Kielder Forest in Northumberland. The Lynx UK Trust launched legal action this year against the English government for refusing to consider its request for a trial lynx reintroduction.

The release of Cairngorms led the First Minister, John Swinney, to rule out the legal reintroduction of the lynx into Scotland. But Micklewright insists that “politically everything is to play for”, with some MPs from all parties and some UK Reform candidates backing the reintroduction of the lynx ahead of the Holyrood elections this spring.

Environmentalists believe that even if a lynx permit application is rejected for “political” reasons by the Scottish Government, the rejection could be challenged in court – if the application is thorough enough.

Lisa Chilton, chief executive of Scotland: The Big Picture, said: “There is a risk that we consult people endlessly, with no result, because there is always a challenge, there will always be uncertainty and unanswered questions about how [reintroducing lynx is] will be deployed in Scotland.

“We could use this uncertainty as an excuse to never do anything, but that’s not what we want. We all know the urgency of the situation with nature, but if you don’t bring society with you, it can’t work.”

Does this great popular effort soften the lynx skeptics?

A deer hunter attending the Fochabers session said he was sure there would still be work for him, because even if the slow-breeding lynx eventually grew to 250 animals – the carrying capacity of the Highland forests, scientists say – they would do little to dent Scotland’s population of more than a million deer.

One forest manager said she had “absolutely no problem with lynx” but was concerned that future regulations governing their protection could create “huge” exclusion zones, preventing forestry operations such as clear-cutting commercial timber. “As a country that imports 85% of our wood, we cannot exclude the few areas where we produce wood,” she said.

Donald MacLellan farmed Suffolk sheep and Aberdeen Angus cattle near Maud, Aberdeenshire. “Compensation is very important and it is important that it is implemented quickly,” he said. “Animals are not just numbers. Losses are not limited to a sheep or a calf: there can be generations of humans breeding these animals to get the best.”

That said, MacLellan was willing to accept the lynx. Are the majority of Scottish farmers? “That I don’t know,” he said, but he cited the 20 mph speed limits and the smoking ban. “Do it, and people will accept it.”