Four Lynx Have Been Illegally Released Into the Scottish Highlands. Officials Think ‘Guerrilla Rewilding’ Is to Blame

Over a thousand years ago, the Eurasian lynx roamed the snowy terrain of the Scottish Highlands, its last refuge in the British Isles. But the covert, illegal and mysterious release of four lynx into the Scottish wilds this week has raised suspicions of conservationists and reignited a debate over whether the cat can reclaim its natural habitat—and at what cost.

The story began on Wednesday, January 8, when the Cairngorms National Park Authority announced that two lynx were at large in the United Kingdom’s biggest national park.

“We condemn the illegal release of wild animals in the strongest possible terms and we are also concerned for the welfare of the lynx that have been released,” the Park Authority says in a statement, adding that it was working with the national police force of Scotland.

“Whilst they are shy animals and low risk to humans, we would ask anyone who does spot a lynx not to approach nor to attend the area,” the Park Authority adds.

Experts worked to recapture the cats overnight, setting up trail cameras and baited traps that the cats would likely seek out.

“It was a long night for our specialist keepers who were taking turns to monitor any activity,” David Barclay, manager of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Saving Wildcats team, says in a statement.

Eventually, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) recaptured the two lynx “safely and humanely, which makes the lack of sleep more than worth it,” Barclay says.

“The Killiehuntly Two,” as the lynx were nicknamed after the estate of Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen where they were spotted, were brought to “suitable quarantine facilities” in the nearby Highland Wildlife Park where they must spend 30 days in accordance with biosecurity laws, before their subsequent transfer to Edinburgh Zoo, according to the statement.

David Field, chief executive of the RZSS, also condemned the release of the Killiehuntly Two.

“It was a highly irresponsible act and it is very unlikely they would have survived in the wild due to a lack of adequate preparation,” Field says in the RZSS statement. “Their abandonment was reckless to the animals, [the] public, the community and nature.”

Some members of the Scottish parliament called for those responsible to face “the full force of the law,” Libby Brooks reports for The Guardian.

While some initial speculation suggested that the lynx had escaped from the nearby Highland Wildlife Park, Max Stephens reports for The Telegraph, park rangers and police soon confirmed this was not the case.

“They had definitely been illegally released because they were 100 yards from a pile of straw bedding that contained dead chicks and, interestingly, porcupine quills—the bedding was peppered with porcupine quills,” Willie Anderson, the deputy team leader of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue, tells The Guardian.

Anderson suggests that the lynx were likely released from an area along the road, close to where where his team captured them. “I don’t think they would have survived in the wild,” he adds.

Camera trap shows second pair of lynx that were found overnight in Scottish Highlands

Watch on

And so the two cats bedded down in their 30-day home in the Highland Wildlife Park, and the authorities began their methodical search for the perpetrators of the rogue lynx release.

But the Highland drama abated only briefly.

This morning, Cairngorms National Park announced the sightings of two additional lynx in the Killiehuntly area. At the time of this article’s publication, the lynx are still at large.

“Although it may be tempting to try to find them, take pictures or set up cameras, we are asking people not to travel into the area, particularly in the current winter weather conditions,” Inspector Craig Johnstone of Police Scotland says in a statement.

Inquiries “are continuing to establish the full circumstances of both sightings,” he says. “Officers are on patrol in the area and anyone with concerns can approach them.”

Authorities believe that this second set of lynx is connected to the first pair, Severin Carrell reports for The Guardian. Farmers remain worried that the lynx may prey upon their livestock.

Several groups that push for the reintroduction of the lynx to Scotland concur that these two releases are reckless for both the lynx and for their cause. In a statement, rewilding charity Scotland: The Big Picture notes that lynx reintroduction has been successful in Germany, France and Switzerland. But, Peter Cairns, the charity’s executive director, says in the statement that “irresponsible and illegal releases such as this are entirely counter-productive.”

Back in 2022, Cairns told the BBC that “When it comes to the return of the lynx, we're in the realm of not yet—but not never.”

“There is a reason why the reintroduction of species is carefully regulated,” says Edward Mountain, a local member of Scottish Parliament, according to The Guardian.

Mountain suggests that this could be a case of “guerrilla rewilding,” an attempt to accelerate the reintroduction of lynx into Scotland. Just this summer, “beaver bombing”—the unauthorized release of the paddle-tailed rodents back into the rivers of Britain—reflected a growing discontent with the government’s slow reintroduction efforts.

Ben Goldsmith, an environmentalist who tells Patrick Greenfield, Libby Brooks and Severin Carrell of The Guardian that he was uninvolved with the release, explains how he was “momentarily thrilled by the notion of lynx once again stalking the Cairngorms. Lynx are an iconic native species missing from Britain and they should be back here. The habitat is perfect, these are secretive animals, and there are no good reasons not to reintroduce them.”

But he adds that in this situation, “whatever has happened, it seems to have been poorly thought through.”

Eli Wizevich | | READ MORE

Eli Wizevich is a history correspondent for Smithsonian. He studied history at the University of Chicago and previously wrote for the El Paso Times.