Wild talk: Scotland is debating the reintroduction of lynx again

For parents of teenage boys, there’s always a prevalence of Lynx at this time of year. For political animals, it seems that’s also the case.

The body sprays are a stick-on gift for discerning gents aged 10 and up. By January they’ve amassed enough to last well into spring, clouds of the stuff wafting off them as they go. The distinctive Africa variant remains a best-seller, despite having been doing the rounds since the 1990s.

Some things just stick in the collective consciousness, I guess. After all, Scotland has been talking about lynx for years – the species, that is. 

Calls to bring it back, 1,000 years since its loss, are also a perennial staple as environmentalists continue efforts to boost biodiversity and control deer stocks. It’s been going on for decades and now we’re debating reintroduction again, with locals in the Highlands and Moray being asked about opening their backyards to the pointy-eared predator.

As many as 89,000 households have been invited to take part in more than 40 sessions across 20 locations, starting this month, as the Lynx in Scotland Partnership tries to convince Scots to get wild. Why there? It’s thought that our northern parts are the best bet for a forest-dwelling species that needs a ready food supply and a quiet place to roam.

Around the same size as a labrador, the lynx has already been brought back to life in select spots across Europe – Switzerland, Slovenia, Poland – since the 1970s. Could up to 250 of them – thought to be a good-sized population – now move in here? Lynx in Scotland smells like a possibility. 

the rural backlash to the resurgence of another sharp-clawed predator, the sea eagle, shows reintroduction is not without challenge

“Northern Scotland can support a thriving population of lynx, but social acceptance is just as important, so we are exploring in detail how people feel about bringing back this important missing native species,” said Steve Micklewright, chief executive of Trees for Life, which is part of the campaign.

Scottish Green MSP Ariane Burgess agrees. The Highlands and Islands MSP tried and failed to have reintroduction written into the Scottish Government’s Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill but says there’s still time for that to change. “Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries on earth,” she said. “If we are to turn things around it will need action.” 

In a stage one debate on the bill, her Conservative counterpart Edward Mountain disagreed, saying that the lynx would cause “immense problems” to his livestock herds, “as it would for all farmers across Scotland”. Climate action minister Gillian Martin said the Scottish Government “does not intend to reintroduce lynx or any other large carnivorous species”.

Of course, reintroduction can occur regardless of what a government says. Who could forget the unauthorised release of four of the wild cats in the Cairngorms this time last year? But the national park proved an impermanent habitat for the quartet, which was captured within days.

One died and the other three were taken to the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie, which is presumably not the end that those who released them intended. Who they are remains a mystery, and Police Scotland says it hasn’t given up on tracking them down.

There’s been no repeat to date, which perhaps suggests that the culprits consider the experiment unsuccessful. And indeed, conditions were far from optimal – the animals were released into temperatures of -14C, an environment Dr Helen Senn, head of conservation at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, described as “extremely harsh”.

Is public opinion around organised reintroduction equally harsh? Polling for Lynx in Scotland from last year put support for the return of the species at 61 per cent, with 13 per cent against it. 

I guess it is a tantalising idea – huge, bearded cats prowling the hillsides, feasting on deer, raising cute but deadly kittens. And it has worked in other jurisdictions. But the rural backlash to the resurgence of another sharp-clawed predator, the sea eagle, shows reintroduction is not without challenge. 

it’s unarguable that Scotland has far to go in tackling the climate challenge

A NatureScot fund compensating farmers and crofters for lambs lost to the raptors grew to nearly £1m in 2025-26. 

Even beavers are not without their critics. Numbers of the tree-gnawing critters have grown significantly since their first appearance in Angus, Perthshire and Tayside via illicit release 20-odd years ago, separate from the official trial reintroduction in Argyll. 

Their impacts on the area affected farming, with drainage ditches dammed and banks collapsed by burrows, and so it was decided that relocation to other areas was necessary to thin out numbers and support rewilding in places like Loch Lomond.

For pro-rewilding campaigners, it’s about filling in missing pieces of the ecological jigsaw – putting back what has been removed by centuries of human folly. 

Indeed, Trees for Life wants not only a wider resurgence in the beaver and the re-entry of the lynx, but in the red squirrel and enormous tauros bull too – what it calls “missing species”.

Success, Mickelwright said, would create a “beacon of hope in the fight against extinction and wildlife loss”.

It’s an awe-inspiring idea. And it’s unarguable that Scotland has far to go in tackling the climate challenge. But right now, the closest any of us can get to lynx in the wild is a can of deodorant. Which is about as uninspiring as you can get, unless you’re a teenage boy.