2w ago

John Swinney rules out reintroduction of lynx to Scotland

www.bbc.co.uk John Swinney rules out reintroduction of lynx to Scotland

The first minister tells farmers that no carnivorous species will be reintroduced under his government.

First Minister John Swinney has ruled out the legal reintroduction of lynx into the wild in Scotland.

His comments follow concerns about the illegal release of four lynx in the Cairngorms last month.

Campaigners have been working on plans for the controlled reintroduction of the cats to benefit rural biodiversity but farmers have raised concerns about the impact they would have on livestock.

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Campaigners have been working on plans for the controlled reintroduction of the cats to benefit rural biodiversity but farmers have raised concerns about the impact they would have on livestock.
So once again, it's meat-eaters fucking up the natural ecosystem for the rest of us. Cool, great.
- It's always farmers. There are some good ones, I'm sure, but for the most part their 'stewardship' of the UKs outdoors extends only as far as their ability to make money from it.
  Fuck 'em, until they do what they like to pretend they do.
  And as far as Lynx are concerned I'm still salty about the escaped lynx from the Borth Animalarium that was killed rather than recaptured because of farmers' concerns (despite the fact that to get a shot at it would require the same work either way).
- I'm not clear on how the introduction of an apex predator help biodiversity.
  
  From my limited understanding the removal of an apex predator can cause role effects through a good chain. First their primary preys will tend to over populate. Then the food sources for this pretty well get devastated by the extra consumption. Then any animal or plant that relies upon whatever food sources can collapse as well.
  The example that was explained to me, and please give me some grace as this is me remembering this from a zoology course in college a decade ago, I a burn in Yellowstone national Park.
  Birders had noticed that a population of a small songbird had collapsed. When wolves were reintroduced to the park they started to bounce back. Turns out the birds only beard in a particular your of shrub. That shrub was getting over eaten by the elk population despite it not being a prefered food since. The elk were heavily overpopulated and devouring less preferred food in much higher volumes because there were no wolves to keep the population in check. So when wolves can't back everything started to balance back out.
  This is a pretty straightforward example of how interconnected the average food web in an ecosystem in. These kind of role effects can spread well past the immediate area where a key species is removed. But hopefully it can help show how one species can be so critical for an ecosystem. I don't know about the animals in this case, but I suspect it would be something like this.

This seems like an unnecessary reintroduction. I'm not familiar with Scotland but it's hard to imagine there being enough wild land for this to work. Correct me if I'm wrong.
- Scotland has a deer problem (they have no natural enemies anymore). So any reforestation effort fails because deer eat the shoots and young trees (just look up the Brewdog reforestation fiasco). The re-introduction of a predator would bring balance. Wolves would do, but people and especially sheep farmers are very scared to do that. The lynx is a less intimidating option.
  I’m not from Scotland, but I live in Belgium, where wolves are making a comeback, even in Flanders, and lynx are also back in the ardennes. I’d say Scotland has A LOT more wild land than Belgium, which is massively paved over and farmed intensively.
  
  I didn't know lynx were capable of hunting deer. Our own population over the pond normally hunt rodents, birds, and mid sized animals like badgers and racoons and such. Cougars and wolves on the other hand would do nicely. Well I hope they find a good solution.
- It would help forests expand at their margins but you're right, what Scotland really needs is wolves.

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