Over the few years, a battle has been quietly simmering between farming communities and a conservation organisation who want to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx to the UK. The cats have been extinct in the UK for well over a thousand years, and while farmers worry that the big cats will threaten their sheep, Lynx UK – the trust behind the plans – argue that the animals would help the economy, and cause little damage to livestock.
But now Defra secretary Michael Gove has rejected a request to release six lynx into Kielder Forest, in Northumberland. The reasoning given for their decision included a lack of support from locals and major landowners, adding that the ‘socio-economic benefits of the trial were unclear’. There were also worries about funding and the lack of a coherent plan to monitor the animals. Sheep farmers and the NFU are rejoicing at the decision.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Lynx UK will give up on their bid to reintroduce the cats to the UK: as their chief scientist Paul O’Donoghue commented, ‘there were several failed license applications for beavers before they were eventually reintroduced, so this is only the beginning of our journey’.
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