Poll: Should the Lynx be reintroduced to Britain?

Should the Lynx be reintroduced to Britain?

  • Yes

    Votes: 177 79.4%

  • No

    Votes: 46 20.6%
  • Total voters
    223
diamount said:
There is no such thing as 'far' when the need for housing keeps growing.
Click to expand...

The highlands of Scotland are a long way down the list for newbuilds I'd wager... Besides that's another problem entirely, reducing our population increase.

Any problems with farmed animals could be mitigated with a compensation system. It's not like this kind of thing is new and experimental, worldwide rewildening is increasing at quite a pace, including Lynx, bears and yes, wolves* in Central/western Europe along with Wolves in various states in the US, amongst others.

A healthy large carnivore population equalise the system and benefits almost everything.

They may also help deal with the masses of sheep on our uplands and in doing so reduce flood risk and insurance claims in the UK too. Alternatively we could just pay farmers not to farm sheep and allow woodland to be re-established on Britains uplands, using the money saved from not needing to build flood defences... Unfortunately there is little science in government policy.

*Wolves are re-establishing themselves well in Italy, France, Austria and Germany, and have even been tracked into The Netherlands (using radio collars) so suggesting they cannot exist in Western European nations is being proven to be untrue. The biggest treat is us to them, rather than them to us, as anyone that has ever tried to see wildlife will attest - it always runs.

Tauren said:
why not re-introduce bears and wolves too while we're at it :rolleyes:


but seriously, it might help cull the chav population :D
Click to expand...

That is the eventual aim, it would do wonders to the health of the countryside, especially the upland areas they would inhabit.
 
I wonder what will happen when they spread as well.

With enough of them, plenty of food and no natural predators, there's no way they won't start to spread out across the UK. It's ok to pay compensation for livestock, which farmers have no emotional attachment to, but pets are a Completely different matter. A £200 payment won't take away the horror of seeing your loved cat or dog get torn to pieces by a Lynx.
 
I'm all for it. Wolves too. We should be smart enough as a society to be able to coexist with other large predators. If it means the cost of lamb goes up by 5p then so be it.
 
Apparently livestock attacks are rare, and they suggested on the news that they would compensate farmers for it.

I'm in favour. I much prefer natural culling (i.e. animals doing what they are designed to do) than us going around shooting animals that we're not going to eat.
 
I am all in favour of it. We ought to be looking rewild more areas of the UK, which involves reintroducing a range of animals, including apex predators such as the Lynx, Wolves and yes, even Bears.
 
Freefaller said:
Apparently livestock attacks are rare, and they suggested on the news that they would compensate farmers for it.

I'm in favour. I much prefer natural culling (i.e. animals doing what they are designed to do) than us going around shooting animals that we're not going to eat.
Click to expand...

All kinds of agreement with this.

Also, I think Lynx are freakin' awesome.
 
Rossi~ said:
Introducing new species of animals is likely to upset the ecosystem in it's environment.
Click to expand...
They are re-introducing an old species. One we killed off before.

Rossi~ said:
There's the cost of doing it and keeping it under control as well.
Click to expand...
Everything costs, but there is no indication they you will pay for it.

Rossi~ said:
Pose a threat to pets.
Click to expand...
They will be released in remote areas. I can only see them being a threat to farm cats.
 
Rossi~ said:
This. It's probably more humane to the deer also.

Introducing new species of animals is likely to upset the ecosystem in it's environment.

There's the cost of doing it and keeping it under control as well.

They'll probably get hunted and maybe killed by farmers as pests.

Pose a threat to pets.
Click to expand...

You're not introducing a new species, you're reintroducing a species that should be here. The extermination of the species originally will have lead to much more damage of the environment as it upsets the balance of nature, for example herbivores now have free reign, increase in number and eat more plants, reducing plant biodiversity and damaging the environment. It's one of the reasons we have such sterile uplands (others being burning for growse and sheep grazing).

A direct example in the UK of this is what I alluded to earlier, sheep and deer stop trees growing by eating the saplings, that in turn reduces woodland cover (and their feet compact the ground). When it rains instead of the water seeping into the ground and being held up by trees, slowly seeping into streams it all rushes in at once, this continues downstream and hey presto, the Somerset levels get flooded.

In every location (native) carnivores have been re-introduced there has been an increase in biodiversity and the environment has benefitted.
 
Last edited:
Judgeneo said:
Then why not sell the meat?
Click to expand...

Good question - I don't know why they don't. Maybe less demand for it? But I imagine that the amount of deer that need to be culled would take far too much resource - why not just bring back an animal that used to do it anyway? Let nature be nature.
 
robfosters said:
I wonder what will happen when they spread as well.

With enough of them, plenty of food and no natural predators, there's no way they won't start to spread out across the UK. It's ok to pay compensation for livestock, which farmers have no emotional attachment to, but pets are a Completely different matter. A £200 payment won't take away the horror of seeing your loved cat or dog get torn to pieces by a Lynx.
Click to expand...

Using that argument we should ban cars... Just imagine if your dog ran into the road and got hit by an oncoming car...

The reality is that spread will take hundreds of years, and it would be very unlikely they enter populated areas. Its such an unlikely event it's not something most pet owners should even be worried about. It's probably more likely to be stolen or run over by a car.
 
Last edited:
Freefaller said:
Good question - I don't know why they don't. Maybe less demand for it? But I imagine that the amount of deer that need to be culled would take far too much resource - why not just bring back an animal that used to do it anyway? Let nature be nature.
Click to expand...

I think most people that shoot deer eat it themselves or give it to friends. At least that's what the ones I know that shoot deer do. Venison is tasty!
 
More information on the Lunx Trust Website and Facebook.

Some of the survey results released today
uCpbzfH.jpg
 
Every instance I've seen of reintroduction of previously hunted to extinction species (save Jurassic Park ;) ) have been extremely successful. There have been controlled trials of reintroducing wolves in several places. Far from upsetting the existing ecosystem, you're restoring them to their natural state, nature does what it does, they don't hunt the deer (or whatever the prominent herbivore is) to extinction, they just control the levels, which causes other wildlife to flourish, in previously unexpected ways.

Deer are not designed to be the top of the food chain.
 
Rossi~ said:
Arguably, you are. The environment has changed so much since it's been gone.

As for "It should be there". Why?
Click to expand...

Generally the environment has changed for the worse, which is the point of the whole rewildening campaign.

As for why, because it was there before us and is only not there because of us. We are not the sole species with a right to be on this planet. That combined with the fact it helps the environment, for all to benefit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom