Landscape drone shot of reserve looking out over grass meadow by RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes Nature Reserve

RSPB Scotland Senior Species and Habitats Officer James Silvey reflects on our position following the illegal release of Lynx in the Cairngorms National Park last week.

RSPB Scotland's reflection on the illegal release of Lynx in the Cairngorms

On Wednesday 8th January a call came into the RSPB office that 2 Lynx had been spotted close to our Insh Marshes reserve near Kingussie. This was quickly followed up with photos taken by a neighbour showing 2 Lynx sat in woodland close to the road and in full view, (very atypical behaviour for wild Lynx). What followed has been recorded in great detail in the media with a speedy capture of the first 2 Lynx by Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) staff needing to be repeated when a further 2 Lynx were captured on camera traps on Thursday night. The second pair were successfully captured on the Friday night but, tragically, one of them died over the weekend.  The three left will now remain in quarantine at Edinburgh Zoo, with a decision on their future thereafter to be determined.

From the reckless location of their release by a road in frequent use by huge logging operations lorries, and their very atypical behaviour which clearly wasn’t sufficient to survive in the wild, it is clear this is an illegal release of animals most probably from a captive environment. It isn’t unreasonable to refer to this as being dumped – and during the coldest spell of weather this winter with absolutely no consideration for their ongoing welfare.

To be clear RSPB condemns this activity completely. It is entirely irresponsible, caused a great deal of distress within the local community and compromised not only the animal’s welfare but also the legitimate efforts of those who are seeking to establish an open debate on the potential reintroduction of Lynx to the UK.

The motives behind the illegal release are unknown but if this was an attempt to illegally introduce Lynx to Scotland then it was dangerously misguided. As a formerly native species, RSPB supports the reintroduction of Lynx to Britain but only as part of a legal, licenced reintroduction that follows protocols set out in the “IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Conservation Translocations”. These guidelines consider the suitability of the area, the health of the donor population, the risks such as disease or impact on current species and habitats and crucially they also require comprehensive stakeholder engagement to ensure that the views of the communities, (both local and depending on scale, national) are taken into account.

RSPB is currently aware of two projects that seek to progress plans for a trial reintroduction of Lynx in the UK (Lynx to Scotland and The Missing Lynx Project) and we are inputting into both as an interested and active stakeholder. Both projects recognise that open and honest conversations with a wide spectrum of audiences is the only way to progress plans and we welcome their approaches.

To those who are against Lynx in the UK this stunt will have done little to allay their concerns. However, I hope they can draw some reassurances from the wide-scale condemnation across the sector of this reckless act and that for those who want to see Lynx return, the only way they want to see it is legally, under an approved license and following IUCN guidelines.

We would urge anyone with information on the release of the 4 animals to contact Police Scotland on 101.