Following several sightings of a large cat resembling a lynx in spots around Newton Stewart and Minnigaff recently, the Lynx UK Trust has spoken of national public support for their reintroduction.
Two runners using
routes in Old Minnigaff are believed to have spotted unusually large
creatures running off into the undergrowth over the last few weeks
with one telling The Gazette the sighting momentarily stunned him
before he retreated and thought it best not to investigate.
And such sightings
could become more common after a public survey carried out last month
by the Lynx UK Trust returned a remarkable 91% in favour of a trial
reintroduction of lynx to the UK, with 84% believing it should begin
within the next 12 months.
With forestry being
the prime candidate for the [project, Galloway Forest Park and other
national parks across to the Borders could be used.
Almost seven weeks
ago the team of international wildlife and conservation experts
announced their hopes to carry out a trial reintroduction of Eurasian
lynx to the UK.
Wiped out in the UK
over 1,300 years ago by fur hunters, lynx have been successfully
reintroduced across Europe, and the team hopes that reintroduction
here will provide a valuable natural control on the UK’s
overpopulated deer species, leading to forest regeneration and a
boost to the entire ecosystem.
Over 9,000 people
took part in the survey.
Big cats have been
spotted in Galloway for years, sometimes black and other times
tabby-coloured. Some experts have put the sightings down to pine
martens and overweight domestic cats.
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