Reintroducing the Lynx gains momentum

It's so gratifying to read that a whopping 90% of people surveyed about reintroducing the Lynx to Britain are supporting the proposed idea. Future rewilding could involve the reinstatement of missing species, including other apex predators even the wolf, both of which play a crucial top-down regulatory role in ecosystems. While the reintroduction of predators is often proposed as a means of reducing excessive numbers of red deer in the Highlands, its main impact would likely be in disturbing deer populations, causing these animals to move more frequently so that their grazing is less concentrated in specific areas.                                 
The lynx – already reintroduced to areas of Europe such as the Alps and Jura mountains – offers little threat to sheep. It is a specialist predator of roe deer, a species which has multiplied in Britain in recent years and which holds back the natural regeneration of trees through intensive browsing.

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