Three of the lynx that were “deliberately abandoned” in the Highlands are said to be “doing well”, after one sadly passed away over the weekend.
The four lynx were illegally released near Kingussie last week, sparking a major search of the area. The animals – which no longer exist in the wild in Scotland – were spotted by two members of the public on Wednesday, January 8.
On Friday night, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) confirmed the animals were humanely captured in pairs in Dell, Killiehuntly, near the Cairngorms. However, on Saturday, the animal conservation charity confirmed that one of the wild cats had sadly passed away overnight.
On Monday a spokesperson for the society confirmed the other three – who have been placed in quarantine at Edinburgh Zoo – are thankfully doing well.
The RZSS spokesperson told the Record: “The three lynx are doing well. We don’t have any information to share on the death of the fourth lynx. We won’t be issuing any information regarding the circumstances of how they came to be in the wild as this is an ongoing police investigation.”
The cause of death currently remains unknown. The RZSS said it was “reasonably confident” there were no other lynx on the loose and inquiries into how the animals came to be there are ongoing.
Following their capture, the wild cats were taken to the Highland Wildlife Park before being moved to Edinburgh Zoo, where the surviving lynx will be quarantined for 30 days. A conservation expert previously slammed the “highly irresponsible” move of individuals to release the animals into the wild.
A statement from Highland Wildlife Park read: “After extensive efforts to capture these animals safely and humanely, we were very sad to discover one of them has died overnight. We do not yet know the circumstances behind its death but will be carrying out a post-mortem to try to establish what happened.
“Whatever the case, this unfortunate development serves to further demonstrate the folly of abandoning these amazing animals in the wild, with no preparation or real concern for their welfare. We can only imagine the stress that all four of the recovered lynx must have experienced after being thrust into an entirely new and extremely harsh environment to fend for themselves.
“The surviving member of the recent pair will head down to Edinburgh Zoo to quarantine alongside the two lynx who were captured on Thursday.”
Dr Neil Anderson, a senior lecturer in conservation medicine at Edinburgh University, who also actively works in wildlife conservation, said the perpetrators could potentially jeopardise the chances of successfully reintroducing the species to Scotland in the future.
Dr Anderson said: “I think it’s highly irresponsible to be releasing lynx at the moment in the manner in which they have been released. It could potentially jeopardise a proper regulated and controlled reintroduction in the future because if anything was to happen, it just makes it harder for conservationists in the future to be able to introduce lynx.
“There is a lot of regulation involved in trying to do a formal reintroduction. It’s a huge process to go through and it’s very tightly regulated for good reason because there could be adverse effects. You could reintroduce diseases and things like that. So there has been quite a lot of concern about potential negative impacts from these kinds of actions.” A spokesperson for Police Scotland confirmed on Monday that their enquiries remain ongoing.
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