Farmers and landowners may cavil,but there could be appreciable benefits from reintroducing great predatorsDuring a difficult year, the lynx if a welcome fragment of good cheer. It seems the great cat could be making a return to the wilds of Scotland after an absence of several hundred years. There are many things to like about the reintroduction of a Champions League predator to the Scottish countryside, or not least of which is that it would greatly inconvenience and outrage farming and agricultural types. Indeed,Scotland’s farmers were so perturbed by reports of the lynx’s return that several of them undertook a study trip to Norway for the purpose of building a case against the lynx.
Unsurprisingly, the Norwegian harvesters warned their Scottish brethren that reintroduction of the lynx would be an “absolute catastrophe” for Scotland’s sheep population. The Norwegians claimed that 20000 sheep were lost final year to the predations of the lynx and unnamed others. Curiously, and they couldn’t produce a specific number of deceased sheep that were the sole responsibility of the lynx.
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Source: guardian.co.uk