Please do not illegally release Lynx in Scotland
January 10, 2025 6:38 AM Subscribe
Scotland has a proper, properly managed program to re-introduce Lynx to Scotland to help control overpopulation of deer, which can cause loss of trees, erosion and possible landslides. That's great! Unfortunately, an irresponsible person illegally released some Lynx into Scotland without the proper quarantine etc checks, which could have caused the death of two Lynx, or introduced new diseases. Fortunately, the Lynx have now been recaptured.
Fortunately, the Lynx have now been recaptured.
Two more lynx, thought to be from the same family group, have also been sighted.
Rather begs the question who is out there breeding lynx just to dump them in the woods.
posted by fight or flight at 7:08 AM on January 10 [3 favorites]
Two more lynx, thought to be from the same family group, have also been sighted.
Rather begs the question who is out there breeding lynx just to dump them in the woods.
posted by fight or flight at 7:08 AM on January 10 [3 favorites]
I named one of the feral cats on my YouTube channel “Mr Lynx” and will regularly get a disappointed comment, “that’s not a real Lynx!”
posted by funkaspuck at 7:21 AM on January 10
posted by funkaspuck at 7:21 AM on January 10
grabbing a wild lynx, now there's a job i wouldn't want. you ever tried to give a domesticated cat a pill?
posted by graywyvern at 7:37 AM on January 10
posted by graywyvern at 7:37 AM on January 10
Sounds from the end of that Guardian piece like there might be a cottage industry of amateur rewilders working in the Scottish Highlands.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 8:06 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 8:06 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]
"amateur rewilders working in the Scottish Highlands." Directed by Bill Forsyth. I can't remember the title though. Anyone?
posted by aesop at 8:16 AM on January 10
posted by aesop at 8:16 AM on January 10
Lynx and bobcats are members of the same genus and if lynx are anything like bobcat's behaviourally then I would hate to have release of of them in the wild! Because here's Mister Murderbritches.
posted by cstross at 8:45 AM on January 10 [9 favorites]
posted by cstross at 8:45 AM on January 10 [9 favorites]
So I guess none of them are missing lynx?
(sorry not sorry)
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 9:03 AM on January 10 [9 favorites]
(sorry not sorry)
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 9:03 AM on January 10 [9 favorites]
Honest question: why was the first letter of "lynx" capitalized in the OPP? UK/original English? Australian? I know that nouns get title caps in German, but I don't think I've seen it in English before.
posted by intermod at 9:23 AM on January 10
posted by intermod at 9:23 AM on January 10
Capitalization of the species name, lost its italics somewhere in the header styling?
posted by clew at 9:42 AM on January 10
posted by clew at 9:42 AM on January 10
*looks around shiftily*
*hides large, oddly mobile bag behind back*
posted by praemunire at 10:54 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]
*hides large, oddly mobile bag behind back*
posted by praemunire at 10:54 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]
why was the first letter of "lynx" capitalized in the OPP?
It's an error by the poster. A fairly common one in my experience with my students, who often capitalise the words seen as 'most important' in a text.
An argument could be made that most of the words in the title could be capitalised, since it is a title, but since most aren't that doesn't apply.
posted by biffa at 11:10 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]
It's an error by the poster. A fairly common one in my experience with my students, who often capitalise the words seen as 'most important' in a text.
An argument could be made that most of the words in the title could be capitalised, since it is a title, but since most aren't that doesn't apply.
posted by biffa at 11:10 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]
I've worked with American bobcats in my earlier chequered career and unlike most UK farmers I am cautiously in favour of lynx reintroduction. They're not a threat to humans (at least humans who are not currently poking them with sticks) and what I think most UK farmers don't realise is that it would likely knock back the fox population to have some competition from another predator in their niche, to the point where it might even reduce aggregate livestock predation. For the Americans: here in the UK foxes occupy the niche that raccoons hold in the USA. They are bold and they are everywhere, especially in your rubbish bins. Big contrast to the USA where foxes are very shy and rarely seen.
posted by Rhedyn at 11:17 AM on January 10 [5 favorites]
posted by Rhedyn at 11:17 AM on January 10 [5 favorites]
Honest question: why was the first letter of "lynx" capitalized in the OPP?
Yeah, at first I wondered whether this had to do with the antiperspirant...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:49 AM on January 10
Yeah, at first I wondered whether this had to do with the antiperspirant...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:49 AM on January 10
Anecdote, but: Foxes have become more commonly spotted within the last few years in suburban Chicago. I live in the city and have never seen a fox, but my suburban brothers and sisters -in law have told me that they see them pretty often now. Even ten years ago they were more rare, and 20 years ago they were never seen.
They keep their distance and are very skittish, but my one brother -in law has seen a mother fox with kits a couple times in the past few years.
Wildlife has really made a comeback around here. Friend of mine has some recent (poor quality but distinct) photos of mature bald eagles well within city limits... like a mile from Wrigley Field, near the river. I see sharp-shinned, Cooper's hawks and peregrine falcons dozens of times a year in the city, and have seen very large red tailed hawks about six or eight times. One swooped down in front of my car as I was driving through Humboldt Park. There's families of them in Humboldt; I have seen two adults with a juvenile at least once. And I'm by no means out looking for them... I just happen to spot them as I park and walk into work. So there's probably a great deal more that I never see.
I still have not seen an urban coyote, but they are common now. I know plenty of people who have seen them well within city limits, and my friend who got shots of the bald eagle has a bunch of photos of them. Many live in, and have pups in, cemeteries within city limits.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:09 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]
They keep their distance and are very skittish, but my one brother -in law has seen a mother fox with kits a couple times in the past few years.
Wildlife has really made a comeback around here. Friend of mine has some recent (poor quality but distinct) photos of mature bald eagles well within city limits... like a mile from Wrigley Field, near the river. I see sharp-shinned, Cooper's hawks and peregrine falcons dozens of times a year in the city, and have seen very large red tailed hawks about six or eight times. One swooped down in front of my car as I was driving through Humboldt Park. There's families of them in Humboldt; I have seen two adults with a juvenile at least once. And I'm by no means out looking for them... I just happen to spot them as I park and walk into work. So there's probably a great deal more that I never see.
I still have not seen an urban coyote, but they are common now. I know plenty of people who have seen them well within city limits, and my friend who got shots of the bald eagle has a bunch of photos of them. Many live in, and have pups in, cemeteries within city limits.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:09 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]
Sounds from the end of that Guardian piece like there might be a cottage industry of amateur rewilders working in the Scottish Highlands.
Oh definitely. Mainly they've worked with beavers, with a lot of success down here in south west England, too. I think in general for those, they've got the support of the landowners, and there have been few complaints. I know that's no longer the case with beavers in Scotland, and there is talk of some of them being culled.
While it is important that the reintroduction does happen with the right amount of proper ecological study ahead of time, it's worth acknowledging that the rewilders are generally ecologists who are concerned with the wellbeing of the animals that they are releasing. There are a lot of (different) land ownership issues at stake across Britain which mean that the large landowners tend to use their land for extensive grazing of sheep and as heather for grouse shooting, meaning that uplands which should have a lot of tree cover tend to be bare.
The amount of impunity which gamekeepers tend to enjoy for e.g. killing birds of prey, and which fox hunts enjoy for their trampling over land, beating the shit out of hunt saboteurs and “accidentally” hunting foxes definitely calls into question how much the local residents who don't own estates can speak out for the ecosystem that they live in. But also with Scotland, the last thing that people who live there want is people coming in from outside with grand ideas about how the countryside should be managed. But on the other hand, there's no question that deer population are unsustainably large.
But yes, those are the rantings of an urban vegan, albeit one who is only 10 minutes walk from their nearest field full of cows.
And also, I haven't seen the beavers in my local river, so that's a shame. I did very much enjoy this book:
Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals, which doesn't cover lynx, but covers about 13 different species and how they're being managed, plus some insinuations about how they reappear.
posted by ambrosen at 12:18 PM on January 10 [4 favorites]
Oh definitely. Mainly they've worked with beavers, with a lot of success down here in south west England, too. I think in general for those, they've got the support of the landowners, and there have been few complaints. I know that's no longer the case with beavers in Scotland, and there is talk of some of them being culled.
While it is important that the reintroduction does happen with the right amount of proper ecological study ahead of time, it's worth acknowledging that the rewilders are generally ecologists who are concerned with the wellbeing of the animals that they are releasing. There are a lot of (different) land ownership issues at stake across Britain which mean that the large landowners tend to use their land for extensive grazing of sheep and as heather for grouse shooting, meaning that uplands which should have a lot of tree cover tend to be bare.
The amount of impunity which gamekeepers tend to enjoy for e.g. killing birds of prey, and which fox hunts enjoy for their trampling over land, beating the shit out of hunt saboteurs and “accidentally” hunting foxes definitely calls into question how much the local residents who don't own estates can speak out for the ecosystem that they live in. But also with Scotland, the last thing that people who live there want is people coming in from outside with grand ideas about how the countryside should be managed. But on the other hand, there's no question that deer population are unsustainably large.
But yes, those are the rantings of an urban vegan, albeit one who is only 10 minutes walk from their nearest field full of cows.
And also, I haven't seen the beavers in my local river, so that's a shame. I did very much enjoy this book:
Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals, which doesn't cover lynx, but covers about 13 different species and how they're being managed, plus some insinuations about how they reappear.
posted by ambrosen at 12:18 PM on January 10 [4 favorites]
(Genus name. Although italicizing not capitalized would be an overcute reference to the Eurasian species.)
posted by clew at 12:37 PM on January 10
posted by clew at 12:37 PM on January 10
This is a good overview video from a British rewilder (Rob at Leave Curious) who seems to have had most of a video ready about lynx already (although he has covered them before). And some great woodland footage, so it's a very nice watch.
posted by ambrosen at 12:42 PM on January 10
posted by ambrosen at 12:42 PM on January 10
Ah the smell of them... that Lynx Africa... even before you saw them you knew they were near.
posted by Webbster at 12:51 PM on January 10
posted by Webbster at 12:51 PM on January 10
Aha, Genus / Species makes sense. When I started reading the OPP, my initial thought was that this was about the old text-based web browser Lynx from the early 1990s :)
posted by intermod at 12:59 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]
posted by intermod at 12:59 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]
It's obviously about a forgotten Game Boy competitor.
posted by downtohisturtles at 1:04 PM on January 10
posted by downtohisturtles at 1:04 PM on January 10
I'm glad to hear about the rewilding, and I hope it can be done correctly and legally. Big cats are the best!
posted by BlueHorse at 1:40 PM on January 10
posted by BlueHorse at 1:40 PM on January 10
I live very nearby to where the lynxes were found and caught. The region is quite a hot-spot for Rewilding, with big long-term projects such as billionaire Anders Povlsen's Wildlands estate (where the lynx were) and the whole Cairngorms Connect collaboration. I've cycled many times on my mountain/gravel bikes around Killiehuntly. The climb up is long, steep, and a bit of a pain, so it's often referred to as Hillie Kuntly.
I'm vegan, but for dinner tonight I ate a venison burger, made by the Cairngorms Connect team. The deer had a happy life in the wilds, and my eating the burger helps, in a small part, to fund the removal of the excess deer population, as well as other projects such as protecting capercaillie, the reintroduction of beaver, and allowing regrowth of upland forests.
All this is to say that Rewilding is big here, so I'm not surprised if someone got too excited and tried to jump the gun with the lynx. BUT, considering that the 4 lynx were easy to catch, and seemed pretty happy about it, I also wonder if they were dumped exotic pets instead.
This time last year, everyone was excited when a Japanese macaque escaped the nearby wildlife park, so it seems this is the place for unexpected animals on the loose. If I remember correctly, he escaped in a desperate attempt to avoid bullying by the other macaques, but he's now the alpha male in a new group in Edinburgh zoo.
posted by milkb0at at 3:36 PM on January 10 [8 favorites]
I'm vegan, but for dinner tonight I ate a venison burger, made by the Cairngorms Connect team. The deer had a happy life in the wilds, and my eating the burger helps, in a small part, to fund the removal of the excess deer population, as well as other projects such as protecting capercaillie, the reintroduction of beaver, and allowing regrowth of upland forests.
All this is to say that Rewilding is big here, so I'm not surprised if someone got too excited and tried to jump the gun with the lynx. BUT, considering that the 4 lynx were easy to catch, and seemed pretty happy about it, I also wonder if they were dumped exotic pets instead.
This time last year, everyone was excited when a Japanese macaque escaped the nearby wildlife park, so it seems this is the place for unexpected animals on the loose. If I remember correctly, he escaped in a desperate attempt to avoid bullying by the other macaques, but he's now the alpha male in a new group in Edinburgh zoo.
posted by milkb0at at 3:36 PM on January 10 [8 favorites]
The best way to get Lynx, the text-based web browser, is to download the latest stable release which is currently version 2.9.2.
Just links and text, no graphics!
posted by otherchaz at 2:12 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]
Just links and text, no graphics!
posted by otherchaz at 2:12 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]
I feel a bit bad for thinking it might have been a sincere rewilding attempt yesterday. Unfortunately, one of the lynx has died, which does make it look more as if they were abandoned from ill managed captivity.
posted by ambrosen at 6:53 AM on January 11
posted by ambrosen at 6:53 AM on January 11
Exotic pet dumping seems more likely -- surely anyone sincerely rewilding would not choose the depths of winter to release animals. At least not predators.
posted by tavella at 8:14 PM on January 11
posted by tavella at 8:14 PM on January 11
Here's bad news on reintroductions and confirmation we still need gorillaguerilla rewilding:
No 10 blocks beaver release plan as officials view it as ’Tory legacy’
posted by ambrosen at 8:04 AM on January 14
No 10 blocks beaver release plan as officials view it as ’Tory legacy’
posted by ambrosen at 8:04 AM on January 14
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"Killiehuntly" sounds like a pretty good name for any predator. (And TIL that the plural of lynx is lynx, although, if it had been put up for a vote, I would have gone with "lynxen.")
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:02 AM on January 10