DCzootripper
Well-Known Member
What is the reason the lynx are quarantined at Edinburgh and not at the much closer highland wildlife park? Is it just because Edinburgh has better facilities, but then where would they be quarantined?
Illegally released lynx captured
- Thread starter Quincey
- Start date
Wisp O' Mist
Well-Known Member
They're being quarantined at Highland and will be going on to Edinburgh once they've been cleared.
DCzootripper
Well-Known Member
Thanks Wisp O' Mist for clearing that up for me 
Highland wildlife park FB comment says they are being quarantined at the zoo and may go back to the park later.
"How many lynx would you have to see in one day before you start to wonder if something supernatural is happening?"
"If I had a nickel for every non-native species found and captured in a Spey Valley village by the Highland Wildlife Park and then taken to Edinburgh Zoo in the past year, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice"
"If I had a nickel for every non-native species found and captured in a Spey Valley village by the Highland Wildlife Park and then taken to Edinburgh Zoo in the past year, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice"
Second pair of lynx captured!
Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
Great news !
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Excellent news! Good camera trap shots of them here too. The article mentions they are larger I wonder if the two groups are related adults and juveniles.
Second pair of lynx captured in Cairngorms Second pair of Lynx captured in Cairngorms
I think / feel it is bloody criminal what these "good natured 'deeds' people have done. High time this ill informed actions by a certain segment of society get prosecuted properly for it.
I know this is taking this thread way off topic, but there's plenty of 2025 to go yet, so-
There has been rumoured for a long time, in cryptozoological circles, that there is some shadowy group of 'enthusiasts' who are involved in regularly releases of animals into the UK to try and force the hand of government.
This might well explain the sudden reappearance of wild boar, which was never fully explained away, plus the additional beavers that were not part of the official scheme.
This may be a bit "out there" to some, but this latest stunt may have been someone taking this a step too far. These seem to have been "tame" animals rather than bred for release.
But who is to say these aren't the same people responsible for the animals behind the many reports of puma and panther since the 1970s?
It's all very odd.
There has been rumoured for a long time, in cryptozoological circles, that there is some shadowy group of 'enthusiasts' who are involved in regularly releases of animals into the UK to try and force the hand of government.
This might well explain the sudden reappearance of wild boar, which was never fully explained away, plus the additional beavers that were not part of the official scheme.
This may be a bit "out there" to some, but this latest stunt may have been someone taking this a step too far. These seem to have been "tame" animals rather than bred for release.
But who is to say these aren't the same people responsible for the animals behind the many reports of puma and panther since the 1970s?
It's all very odd.
Wisp O' Mist
Well-Known Member
This is literally confirmed. It's guerrilla rewilding, Derek Gow is a known supporter. Derek Gow - Wikipedia
There has never been a confirmed alien big cat in the UK.
Ah, but there have been several-Felicity the Puma (another 'tame' animal) also in Scotland.
There have also been previous Lynx and even a Jungle Cat hit by cars and no explanation of origins were found for them.
The potential other ABCs are by their definition, uncaught.
I once saw something, at the same time as a wholly independent person, which was a large black cat. My father had also recently seen one (which I did not know about, as he kept it quiet, as he did not know of my interest), within 10 miles of my own sighting.
My own sighting was the size of a ocelot, rather than a leopard/puma. It was pure black. It 'scurried' as cats do when moving quickly. It had a long tail and it did not appear to be 'fluffy' so not a Ragdoll or Norwegian Forest domestic cat.
I was travelling on a bus, and it ran from a wooded railway line across the road in front of us. The bus driver seeing it, pulled up quickly, as it ran across to the other side and jumped over the wall and into the hedge/woods again.
He said nothing and started driving again. It was only when I went to get off, I asked him about it, and he confirmed that it was a very large black cat.
The only other person on the bus was at the back, and I did not ask them as I doubt they would have seen it.
The only reason I know about my Dad's sighting was because I asked my Mum why there were no deer in the woods where they lived anymore and she said, sceptical, to ask Dad why not, and he reluctantly told me he had been working in the woods when he turned round and found a large black cat walking close behind him! When it realised it had been seen, it ran off.
I also know 2 other people, one of whom is an ex-policeman who, unprompted, told me about their encounters with unidentified large cats, unconnected with my own odd experience.
Were they abnormally large feral cats ('sports') such as some variation on the Scottish Kellas' Cats? Or something else again?
I live between 2 collections (one closed for many years, one open) that display/ed cats, and I know of one private owner of an Ocelot locally. Not that I'm suggesting any escapees but maybe they are attracted by mating calls/pheromones of those cats?
Ben Mee seemed to think so regarding the male Puma that visited his captive females as mentioned in his book and on TV.
Even a fairly cursory look results in some quite surprising results!
There have also been previous Lynx and even a Jungle Cat hit by cars and no explanation of origins were found for them.
The potential other ABCs are by their definition, uncaught.
I once saw something, at the same time as a wholly independent person, which was a large black cat. My father had also recently seen one (which I did not know about, as he kept it quiet, as he did not know of my interest), within 10 miles of my own sighting.
My own sighting was the size of a ocelot, rather than a leopard/puma. It was pure black. It 'scurried' as cats do when moving quickly. It had a long tail and it did not appear to be 'fluffy' so not a Ragdoll or Norwegian Forest domestic cat.
I was travelling on a bus, and it ran from a wooded railway line across the road in front of us. The bus driver seeing it, pulled up quickly, as it ran across to the other side and jumped over the wall and into the hedge/woods again.
He said nothing and started driving again. It was only when I went to get off, I asked him about it, and he confirmed that it was a very large black cat.
The only other person on the bus was at the back, and I did not ask them as I doubt they would have seen it.
The only reason I know about my Dad's sighting was because I asked my Mum why there were no deer in the woods where they lived anymore and she said, sceptical, to ask Dad why not, and he reluctantly told me he had been working in the woods when he turned round and found a large black cat walking close behind him! When it realised it had been seen, it ran off.
I also know 2 other people, one of whom is an ex-policeman who, unprompted, told me about their encounters with unidentified large cats, unconnected with my own odd experience.
Were they abnormally large feral cats ('sports') such as some variation on the Scottish Kellas' Cats? Or something else again?
I live between 2 collections (one closed for many years, one open) that display/ed cats, and I know of one private owner of an Ocelot locally. Not that I'm suggesting any escapees but maybe they are attracted by mating calls/pheromones of those cats?
Ben Mee seemed to think so regarding the male Puma that visited his captive females as mentioned in his book and on TV.
Even a fairly cursory look results in some quite surprising results!
London Zoo had a lynx caught in Cricklewood, North London.
I wonder if the recent incidents concerning lynxes has put back the idea of rewilding lynxes in the UK.
I wonder if the recent incidents concerning lynxes has put back the idea of rewilding lynxes in the UK.
I have a personal interest here in that I do think that there is very valid rationale for reintroduction of some former UK/Britain temperate fauna that have become extinct by human impacts in the 500AD - 2000AD era.
This holds true for species like Eurasian beaver (so no Canadians/North American ones please), Eurasian lynx (yes, but then following the regular path of phased and monitored reintroduction and scientifically carefully managed in suitable areas with healthy apt founders from a relevant population with good genetic linkages to the erstwhile British Isles' population or the nearest related subspecies from temperate Western European/Scandinavian origins) and even North-West European wolves (to the areas in the British Isles with high red deer populations while truly de-managing /put on phase out the non endemic Chinese muntjacs, Chinese water deer and various sika deer subspecies... by live capture given that f.i. Chinese muntjac Muntiacus reevesi and Chinese water deer Hydropotis inermis given their status in the P.R. of China).
For species like European bison or European wild horse there may be a case ..., even though in this species never ranged / been resident to the British Isles (with a more diverse glacial/interglacial Pleistocene fauna encompassing now extinct Europe steppe bison Bison priscus and European wild horse Equus ferus ferus and Auerochs Bos primigenius. The case for wild horse is more relevant since their is contention that Exmoor pony's are by some regarded as the nearest thing to European wild horses from the Pleistocene era. Horses have not been seen in the British Isles at around 10,500 BC (and after the Mesolithic period .... the Doggerland area submerged and produced the confines of present-day North Sea basin.
Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01433768.2023.2284546#d1e219
This holds true for species like Eurasian beaver (so no Canadians/North American ones please), Eurasian lynx (yes, but then following the regular path of phased and monitored reintroduction and scientifically carefully managed in suitable areas with healthy apt founders from a relevant population with good genetic linkages to the erstwhile British Isles' population or the nearest related subspecies from temperate Western European/Scandinavian origins) and even North-West European wolves (to the areas in the British Isles with high red deer populations while truly de-managing /put on phase out the non endemic Chinese muntjacs, Chinese water deer and various sika deer subspecies... by live capture given that f.i. Chinese muntjac Muntiacus reevesi and Chinese water deer Hydropotis inermis given their status in the P.R. of China).
For species like European bison or European wild horse there may be a case ..., even though in this species never ranged / been resident to the British Isles (with a more diverse glacial/interglacial Pleistocene fauna encompassing now extinct Europe steppe bison Bison priscus and European wild horse Equus ferus ferus and Auerochs Bos primigenius. The case for wild horse is more relevant since their is contention that Exmoor pony's are by some regarded as the nearest thing to European wild horses from the Pleistocene era. Horses have not been seen in the British Isles at around 10,500 BC (and after the Mesolithic period .... the Doggerland area submerged and produced the confines of present-day North Sea basin.
Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01433768.2023.2284546#d1e219
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It is now being reported that one of the rescued lynx has now died.
Whoever released these animals in the first place, I hope you’re feeling proud!
Whoever released these animals in the first place, I hope you’re feeling proud!
Cobi
Well-Known Member
I wouldn’t have thought so. If they had run rampant through Kingussie and its surroundings killing everything in sight, then yes, no doubt. But I see this incident as being just a footnote in the wider discussion of rewilding.
Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
Interestingly, according to BBC Scotland, there was straw/bedding near to where 2 Lynx (doesn't say if it was the first or second pair) were found and in it was porcupine quills. So , who ever dumped these poor animals, do they own other exotics?
Lafone
Well-Known Member
How sad. I hope they find the people who did this and they can be held accountable.
Very sad indeed. Given they were (no doubt) imported illegally, the grim spectre of rabies raises its ugly head.
Or any other number of diseases, many of which could affect the dwindling Scottish Wildcat population.
I cannot accept any of this was done by an even mildly competent person, just someone with deep pockets. The list of suspects can't be that long.
Or any other number of diseases, many of which could affect the dwindling Scottish Wildcat population.
I cannot accept any of this was done by an even mildly competent person, just someone with deep pockets. The list of suspects can't be that long.
I would say there is definitely doubt on this. Why couldn't they have been bred in the UK? I've not seen anything to suggest otherwise but could be wrong.
Doesn't make it a good idea of course but apparent assumptions like this don't help anyone, and this thread has become a hotbed of speculation-as-truth since this story broke!