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11 hours ago
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Two lynx that were illegally released into the Scottish Highlands have been captured overnight and are said to be in good health.
Police had issued a warning to the public on Wednesday evening not to approach the wild cats, after several sightings in the Drumguish area, near Kingussie.
Working alongside Police Scotland, experts from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) humanely trapped the wild cats and they are now being cared for in quarantine facilities at Highland Wildlife Park.
The wildlife conservation charity condemned the illegal release as “reckless” and “highly irresponsible”, as did other animal welfare groups who warned that it was likely the pair would have died in the wild.
Police were continuing to appeal for information on Thursday as they investigated where the animals had come from. While charities working towards the reintroduction of lynx to the Highlands have condemned the illegal release, there is speculation that someone who had grown frustrated with the slow progress of the campaign had taken matters into their own hands.
The fact that the usually shy and elusive animals were photographed in snowy woodland by a local resident suggests they were used to human interaction.
Eurasian lynx, which typically grow to the size of a labrador retriever and have thick grey-brown fur with black spots and a white belly, were once native to Britain but driven to extinction about 1,000 years ago.
David Barclay, the manager of the RZSS saving wildcats team, said: “We set live trail cameras near baited traps and it was a long night for our specialist keepers who were taking turns to monitor any activity.
“It was amazing to see the lynx being captured safely and humanely, which makes the lack of sleep more than worth it.
“Biosecurity laws mean the cats need to spend 30 days in suitable quarantine facilities, so we will transfer them from Highland Wildlife Park to Edinburgh zoo, where we will further assess their health and welfare. Long term, they may return to Highland Wildlife Park, which is near where they were trapped, though it is too early to say for certain.”
RZSS’s chief executive, David Field, condemned the illegal release “in the strongest possible terms”.
“It was a highly irresponsible act and it is very unlikely they would have survived in the wild due to a lack of adequate preparation. Their abandonment was reckless to the animals, public the community and nature.
“For now, we have named them ‘The KillieHuntly Two’ and thankfully they appear to be in good health.”
Highland Wildlife Park is already home to two grown northern lynx, a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx, named Switch and Neon.
The charity partnership Lynx to Scotland described the illegal release as “grossly irresponsible”.
Peter Cairns, the executive director of Scotland: The Big Picture, one of the charities involved, said: “We understand the frustration of all those who wish to see lynx restored to the Scottish landscape, but an illegal release is not the way to achieve that aim.”
The farmers’ union NFU Scotland, which opposes the reintroduction of lynx to the Cairngorns, had raised concerns overnight about the predators attacking livestock.
Adding to speculation about how and why the cats were released, one eyewitness described encountering them near a layby, where straw bedding had been left for them.
Willie Anderson, deputy team leader of Cairngorm mountain rescue team, said he came within 60 yards of the pair.
“They had definitely been illegally released because they were 100 yards from a pile of straw bedding that contained dead chicks and, interestingly, porcupine quills – the bedding was peppered with porcupine quills,” she said.
“They were very tame and you could see they had been released from a nearby layby because there was the straw there too. They were only 100 yards from that spot and the road. I don’t think they would have survived in the wild.”
Anderson praised the speed at which experts at the Highland Wildlife Park had recaptured the animals.
“The park had traps they use for their Scottish wildcat reintroduction programme, so they left baited cages and incredibly they caught both. The cages also had cameras so staff could monitor them,” he said.
“To catch one lynx in a cage was great but two was really fantastic. I have done a few rescues in my time but this was one of the more unusual events that I have come across.”
The Highland Wildlife Park is familiar with winter escapades: last February an escaped Japanese macaque became a global sensation after he want on the run for four days, before being lured back by a yorkshire pudding.
