Lynx between a species’ reintroduction & ecotourism?

July 11, 2017

Species reintroduction ecotourism. Eurasian lynx in winter coat. By Tom Bech via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/viatorius/8603098728

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The rein­tro­duc­tion of the Euras­i­an lynx into European coun­tries has res­ul­ted in new indus­tries such as wild­life tour­ism and eco­tour­ism; “breath­ing new eco­nom­ic life into remote rur­al communities”.

So says the Lynx UK Trust, which last week updated stake­hold­ers on its pro­posed tri­al rein­tro­duc­tion of the Euras­i­an lynx to the Kield­er Forest of Northum­ber­land in north­ern England.

Accord­ing the the Trust, the Euras­i­an lynx is a nat­ive of the Brit­ish Isles that was “forced out of much of West­ern Europe by hab­it­at destruc­tion and human per­se­cu­tion over the last 2,000 years”.

“The last of the Brit­ish lynx dis­ap­peared around the year 700.”

The medi­um-sized cat preys on “deer spe­cies and a vari­ety of smal­ler mam­mal” and is “known by ancient cul­tures around the world as a mys­ter­i­ous ‘Keep­er of Secrets’ that rarely leaves the forest”.

“This sol­it­ary and secret­ive nature means that they present no threat to humans and it is excep­tion­ally rare for them to pred­ate on agri­cul­tur­al animals.

“Their pres­ence will return a vital nat­ur­al func­tion to our eco­logy help­ing con­trol num­bers of deer and a vari­ety of agri­cul­tur­al pest spe­cies whilst pro­tect­ing forestry from deer dam­age caused by overpopulation.”

Species reintroduction ecotourism. A Eurasian lynx kitten. By Bernard Landgraf, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=217850

A Euras­i­an lynx kit­ten. By Bern­ard Land­graf, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wiki­me­dia.

A “moral obligation”?

Accord­ing to a report by The Guard­i­an, the Kield­er forest was chosen for the tri­al “due to its abund­ance of deer, large forest area and the absence of major roads”.

The six lynx to be released — two young adult males and four young adult females — would come from Sweden, where the spe­cies thrives. All six cats would have GPS col­lars report­ing their loc­a­tion at all times.

Nev­er­the­less, some loc­als are opposed to the rein­tro­duc­tion. Speak­ing on behalf of sheep farm­ers in the area, Nation­al Sheep Asso­ci­ation CEO Phil Stock­er, said: “Even if com­pens­a­tion were offered, it will not make sheep mor­tal­it­ies accept­able. I can­not see how dis­tress­ing attacks caused by a wild anim­al will be accepted.”

How­ever, Dr Paul O’Donoghue, chief sci­entif­ic advisor to the Lynx UK Trust and expert adviser to the Inter­na­tion­al Uni­on for the Con­ser­va­tion of Nature (IUCN) told The Guard­i­an: “You will nev­er see a lynx run­ning across an open field chas­ing down prey – they can’t do it. They are the epi­tome of a forest spe­cial­ist – their coat is dappled.”

O’Donoghue says there is a “mor­al oblig­a­tion” to rein­tro­duce lynx: “We killed every single last one of them for the fur trade. That’s a wrong we have to right. Lynx belong here as much as hedge­hogs, badgers, robins, blackbirds.”

On the poten­tial for eco­tour­ism, O’Donoghue said lynx would “gen­er­ate tens of mil­lions of pounds for strug­gling rur­al UK economies”.

Species reintroduction ecotourism. A Eurasian lynx at Skåne Zoo, southern Sweden. By David Castor via Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALynx_lynx-4.JPG

A Euras­i­an lynx at Skåne Zoo, south­ern Sweden. By Dav­id Castor via Wiki­me­dia.

“Lynx have already been rein­tro­duced in the Harz moun­tains in Ger­many,” he said. “They have branded the whole area the ‘king­dom of the lynx’. Now it is a thriv­ing eco­tour­ism des­tin­a­tion and we thought we could do exactly the same for Kielder.”

How­ever if the lynx were to be rein­tro­duced it would be very dif­fi­cult for eco­tour­ists to actu­ally see one of the noc­turn­al cats.

“Lynx are very secret­ive and elu­sive, but that’s com­pletely irrel­ev­ant,” O’Donoghue said. “It’s a chance to walk in a forest where lynx live, a chance to see a lynx track, to see a lynx scratch­ing post. And if you did see a lynx in the wild, it would be the wild­life encounter of a lifetime.”

Community consultation

In an open let­ter (Face­book post) to the com­munity of the Kield­er Forest region dated July 6, the Trust explained: “11 months ago we held our first con­sulta­tion meet­ing in Kield­er Com­munity Hall, to present our thoughts on a poten­tial tri­al rein­tro­duc­tion of Euras­i­an lynx in the Kield­er region, and to hear some ini­tial reac­tion to it. Since then hun­dreds of you have spoken to us …”

The Trust’s con­sulta­tion on the poten­tial tri­al has fin­ished and the “com­mu­nic­a­tion has been gathered into our vari­ous reports and sub­mis­sions for the stat­utory agency, Nat­ur­al Eng­land, to shortly consider”.

Species reintroduction ecotourism. Eurasian lynx in Wildpark Leipzig. By Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALeipzig_Wildpark_Eurasian_lynx_01.jpg

Euras­i­an lynx in Wild­park Leipzig. By Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wiki­me­dia.

Nat­ur­al Eng­land is the “government’s adviser for the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment in Eng­land, help­ing to pro­tect England’s nature and land­scapes for people to enjoy and for the ser­vices they provide. Nat­ur­al Eng­land is an exec­ut­ive non-depart­ment­al pub­lic body, sponsored by the Depart­ment for Envir­on­ment, Food & Rur­al Affairs.”

The Trust con­tin­ued: “A tri­al rein­tro­duc­tion can only be suc­cess­ful with broad sup­port across the loc­al com­munity the lynx live along­side, and we know there are many dif­fer­ing per­spect­ives amongst you which are all crit­ic­al to hear.

“In many oth­er coun­tries Euras­i­an lynx rein­tro­duc­tion has proven excep­tion­ally low-con­flict and won­der­fully bene­fi­cial for the loc­al com­munit­ies that live along­side them, and we do sin­cerely hope that these cats, which thrived here for mil­lions of years, do have the oppor­tun­ity to prove they can still fit into both our eco­logy, and along­side loc­al com­munit­ies like those across the Kield­er region.

“The decision on exactly what hap­pens next in the pro­cess will fall to the stat­utory agen­cies, who will receive all of the accu­mu­lated study and an applic­a­tion for a five year tri­al rein­tro­duc­tion with­in the next two months.”

Turn up the vole-ume

The lynx would­n’t be the first spe­cies rein­tro­duced to the Kield­er region.

Species reintroduction ecotourism. The largest ever reintroduction of endangered water voles in the UK is underway. Source: VisitKielder.com

The largest ever rein­tro­duc­tion of endangered water voles in the UK is under­way. Source: VisitKielder.com

Last month (June 2017) the Kield­er Water & Forest Park announced the much less con­tro­ver­sial release of 700 water voles in Kield­er Forest. After a 30-year absence of that spe­cies in the forest, it is the largest water vole rein­tro­duc­tion to one place ever under­taken in the UK.

The Kield­er Water Vole Part­ner­ship released about half of the water voles in June; those from “strong pop­u­la­tions over the bor­der in Scot­land”. The oth­er half — “the young from voles cap­tured in the North Pen­nines in late sum­mer 2016” — is due to be released next month (August  2017).

“The aim is to restore pop­u­la­tions of the endangered mam­mal in the Kield­er catch­ment of the north Tyne with a view to their even­tu­al spread through­out west­ern reaches of Northumberland.”

Water voles were a com­mon sight in UK water­courses until the 1970s and 80s, when a com­bin­a­tion of escaped Amer­ic­an mink (pred­at­ors of water voles) and hab­it­at loss took a severe toll on water vole pop­u­la­tions. As res­ult, the water vole is now absent from the major­ity of Northumberland’s rivers.

Fea­tured image: Euras­i­an lynx in winter coat. By Tom Bech via Flickr

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