The Lynx and Us (sample)

Text by David Hetherington Images by Laurent Geslin

The Lynx and Us First published in 2018 by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture www.scotlandbigpicture.com All rights reserved.

Words by David Hetherington Images by Laurent Geslin except those listed below: Peter Cairns: P71, P77, P115, P116, P119, P138, P146, P147, P150 (all) Mark Hamblin: P113 (lower left & right), P120, P128, P131, P141, P166 James Shooter: P132 P43 (left) Livre de Chasse reproduced with permission from Bibliothèque nationale de France.

P43 (right) Portrait by Michel Sittow, The National Gallery of Art, Washington.

P122 Reproduced with permission from National Museums Scotland.

P126 Reproduced with permission from Historic Environment Scotland.

Maps P59, P135 by Sue Jones Supported by Wildland: www.wildland.scot Project management by Mark Hamblin & Peter Cairns: www.scotlandbigpicture.com Book design by Emma Brown: www.scotlandbigpicture.com Text editing by Gordon Eaglesham: www.scotlandbigpicture.com Book production by Mark Hamblin: www.scotlandbigpicture.com Colour reproduction by Pixel Colour Imaging: www.pixelcolourimaging.com Printed and bound in Italy by Printer Trento: www.printertrento.it The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent, not for profit, non-government organisation established to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

This book is made from paper from responsible sources and meets the eligibility requirements stipulated by the FSC.

ISBN: 978-0-9568423-2-9 A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews.

Contents Introduction

13

CHAPTER 5 : THE UK - A CASE STUDY

120

CHAPTER 1 : THE ENIGMATIC LYNX

16

Britain’s little lions

122

The lynx as a predator

20

The suitability of modern Britain

130

The way of the lynx

26

Competitor for game?

136

CHAPTER 2 : THE FALL AND RISE

36

Predator of livestock?

143

The lynx as a competitor

38

Predator of endangered wildlife?

144

The return

50

Poster child for the tourism industry?

149

Reintroduction

60

The lynx and us

152

CHAPTER 3 : CONFLICT AND COEXISTENCE

66

Interactions with people

69

Notes and References

158

Interactions with domestic animals

70

Photographer’s notes

164

Conflict around deer

82

Biographies and Acknowledgements

166

Living with us - a cat’s chance in hell?

86

CHAPTER 4 : ICON OF THE WILD

94

Lynx the rewilder

96

Large carnivore tourism

114

Introduction

T

he Eurasian lynx is Europe’s third largest land carnivore. Only

The bear has for centuries been a prominent heraldic symbol, including of

the brown bear and wolf, with which the lynx traditionally

European capital cities, such as Berlin and Bern. Generations of children have

shared our forests, are larger. All three species have in recent

grown up listening to tales about Goldilocks, Paddington, Rupert and Winnie-

decades been experiencing a comeback across the continent. They have been

the-Pooh, perhaps even falling asleep cuddling the effigy of a bear. The wolf

recovering from centuries of deforestation, over-hunting and persecution as

features in a multitude of well-known stories and tales, from the ancient

vermin, which saw them vanish from many countries and become very scarce

foundation myth of Rome’s wolfmother, through the medieval belief in shape-

in others. Across Europe, in populated landscapes used for farming, tourism,

shifting werewolves, to the more modern fairy stories and morality tales such

forestry and hunting, people are once again living alongside predatory animals

as The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, and Peter and the Wolf.

large enough to inspire wonder, consternation, and sometimes fear.

The lynx, by comparison, is anonymous. It lacks such prominent cultural This return has often come after an absence that lasted multiple human

depictions, either positive or negative. There are no fairy tales, no literary

generations. Consequently, we lost a cultural connection with these animals

characters known to generations of Europeans, and much less symbolism.

and forgot what it means to live cheek by jowl with them. For many people

In some ways this is a good thing. It means the lynx avoids the persistent

large carnivores are now unfamiliar and alien beasts. This is probably most

demonisation the wolf endures, where it’s frequently cast as the child-eating

pronounced in the case of the lynx, which has always had a much lower

baddy. The wolf’s higher profile does at least mean that most people know

cultural profile than the other two species.

from a young age that wolves live in packs, hunt big animals such as deer, and can howl to communicate with one another. For most Europeans, however, the lynx is a complete enigma, with little understanding of how and where it lives, what it eats, and how it interacts with people and their ways of life.

15

In their first few weeks the kittens will remain at the den site feeding on their

first year8. Provided they can survive, kittens will stay with their mother until

mother’s milk. She may move the kittens to alternative dens in response to any

they are around 10 months old. With the approach of the next breeding season

disturbance or in order to better hunt prey for herself. At around two months

she will drive them off, forcing them to find their own way in life.

old, the mother will begin to feed the kittens on meat, and her hunting rate increases as a result, compelling her to move further within her home range.

At this stage of their lives, when they have become independent of their

Once she has made a kill, she will move the kittens and secrete them nearby

mothers but have not yet secured a home range of their own, young lynx

in a new den or amongst dense vegetation. From around 3 months old, the

are known as subadults. Although subadult siblings may stick together for a

kittens begin to accompany their mother on her hunting trips, watching and

while, this is nevertheless a very challenging time for them. They must quickly

learning how to stalk and kill prey.

perfect the skills to hunt and kill prey at a time when they still lack the stature and strength of adult lynx. At 10 months old, subadult lynx may still weigh only

Life as a lynx kitten is far from easy and they face a range of threats, including

9 or 10 kilos, yet have to overcome their inexperience to pull down deer at

starvation, parasites, disease, predators and even aggression from their own

least twice their weight. If they fail to do so, they risk starvation.

siblings. Consequently, more than half of kittens commonly die during their

From around 3 months old, kittens begin to accompany their mother on hunting trips, watching and learning how to stalk and kill prey.

32

Britain’s little lions

B

ones of lynx have been recorded from limestone caves the length and breadth of Britain. It used to be thought that the most recent of these bones was around 4000 years old, and that lynx died out

around that time. Because there had been a period of natural climate change at roughly the same time, resulting in Britain receiving cooler temperatures and more rainfall, it was assumed that lynx couldn’t cope with the new conditions and died out naturally. However, this theory is inconsistent with the lynx’s survival into the 19th century in south-western Norway where the oceanic climate is very similar to Britain’s, and where the species was instead wiped out through the over-hunting of deer populations, as well as direct persecution and over-exploitation for fur.

We now know that several British lynx bones are much younger than previously assumed. Specimens from North Yorkshire in northern England and from Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands have been radiocarbon-dated to the Roman era, while another bone from North Yorkshire gave a younger date still — this time from the early medieval period14. This means that natural climate

The skull of a male lynx found in a limestone cave in Sutherland in the Scottish

change can be ruled out as a cause for the lynx’s extinction in Britain. The

Highlands. A bone from this lynx was radiocarbon-dated to the 3rd century. The

‘hard facts’ of relatively recent radiocarbon dates meant a hunt for the clues to a cultural relationship between Britain’s people and its native lynx population could be investigated more confidently. This has yielded faint traces of the lynx through the centuries.

124

species may have lived in the Highlands until as recently as the 16th century.

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