The medium-sized wild cats, which had been extinct in Scotland for hundreds of years, were observed in the snowy national park Cairngorms last week – and raised concerns that a private breeder may have illegally released them into the wild.
A total of four lynxes were caught. A pair was caught on Thursday. Two more were caught on Friday evening, and one of the animals later died.
This unfortunate development only shows more clearly how stupid it is to abandon these fantastic animals in nature without preparations or real care for their welfare, says Helen Senn, head of the organization Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
We can only imagine the stress that all four recaptured lynxes must have experienced after being thrown out into a completely new and extremely tough environment to fend for themselves, she continues.
The caught lynxes are now in quarantine at the Highland Wildlife Park and will eventually be moved to Edinburgh Zoo.
The police are investigating the incident but have not released any information about suspects.
There were, a long time ago, lynxes in the wild in the UK. But they died out between 500 and 1,000 years ago due to changes in their living environment and hunting.
