Rewilding of Scotland will address damage

Sir,

Iain Thornber bemoans the wacky characters and quirky schemes attracted to rural Scotland (Morvern Lines, February 15) and it is certainly true that some major landowners have inflicted a great deal of damage on Highland culture and ecology over the past 200 years or so.

However, he fails to understand that ‘rewilding’ is in part an attempt to redress some of that damage. He attacks the idea of rewilding by saying: ‘At its most extreme, rewilding implies zero-intervention by humans, but no matter how hard anyone may try, it is almost impossible to find unaltered landscapes in Europe, including Scotland.’

He said it! I doubt if many serious conservationists propose rewilding ‘at its most extreme’ and if the landscape were ‘unaltered’, there would be no need in any case.

Wolves and bears wander freely in the Abruzzo mountains of central Italy, little more than 100 miles from Rome – a popular tourist area and hardly an unspoiled wilderness. And lynx are found in southern Scandinavia in farmed landscapes, as long as there is sufficient forest cover.

Mr Thornber refers to (presumably) these species as ‘dangerous predators’, but lynx attacks on humans are unheard of across Europe. And he worries that the deer which have been present for 10,000 years are to be ‘sacrificed’, but the deer coexisted with lynx (and wolves and bears) for most of that time and they now probably occur in higher numbers than at any previous time during that period.

The impact of lynx on deer numbers is likely to be modest and certainly wouldn’t result in their eradication. They may even disproportionately impact the introduced forest-loving sika deer (result of past landowner follies and a hybridisation threat to native red deer).

As regards the Eigg stone, one could argue whether it depicts a non-indigenous lion, or a, possibly indigenous, lynx, but the Inchnadamph lynx (the identification of which he wrongly implies is in doubt) has been carbon dated to around AD180 and further fossil remains from Yorkshire have been dated to as recently as AD600. So depiction of a native lynx on a carving from the ninth century is not so improbable.

Given the low density at which lynx would naturally occur, the conditions needed for fossilisation, and the need to then find them, it is hardly surprising that fossil evidence is scarce.

I can find a little common ground with Mr Thornber in that the only serious suggestion for reintroducing lynx and other large mammals on the islands that I am aware of was from eminent mammologist, the late Derek Yalden, back in 1986. He proposed a long-term attempt to re-establish the native fauna on the Island of Rum National Nature Reserve. However, Rum, at about 100km² is probably not big enough to sustain viable populations and Eigg certainly isn’t.

Any serious attempt at reintroducing lynx in Scotland would have to be on the mainland, but I get the sense that, whatever the evidence, Mr Thornber will still not think there’s enough room for them. Alex Farqhar, by email.