Experts blast 'highly irresponsible' release of Lynx wildcats in Highlands

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A conservation expert has said it was “highly irresponsible” of individuals to release a number of lynx into the Scottish Highlands.Dr Neil Anderson, a senior lecturer in conservation medicine at Edinburgh University, condemned the actions of those responsible for releasing a total of four of the wildcats over the past few days.Dr Anderson, who also actively works in wildlife conservation, said the perpetrators could potentially jeopardise the chances of successfully reintroducing the species to Scotland in the future.It comes as Police Scotland launched an investigation into a sighting of another two lynx in the Dell of Killiehuntly near Kingussie, Highlands on Friday at around 7.10am.Officers said they believe the sighting is connected to the release of another two lynx seen in the same area on Wednesday, which were safely captured overnight into Thursday.Dr Anderson said: “I think it’s highly irresponsible to be releasing lynx at the moment in the manner in which they have been released.“It could potentially jeopardise a proper regulated and controlled reintroduction in the future because if anything was to happen, it just makes it harder for conservationists in the future to be able to introduce lynx.“There is a lot of regulation involved in trying to do a formal reintroduction.

It’s a huge process to go through and it’s very tightly regulated for good reason because there could be adverse effects.“You could reintroduce diseases and things like that.

So there has been quite a lot of concern about potential negative impacts from these kinds of actions.”He added: “They’ve managed to capture the first two quite quickly by the sound of things, so hopefully they’ll have similar success with the remainder.”Inspector Craig