Two billionaire Scandinavians who own large tracts in remote regions of Scotland are hoping to reintroduce wild lynx on their land.
Anders Holch Povlsen (48), a Danish billionaire worth $ 6 billion who is believed to be the largest landowner in the UK, with an area of about 220,000 hectares, and Lisbet Rausing, an heir to Tetra Pak, who still Owns 80,000 acres of Scottish Highlands. funding of research aimed at reintroducing the predator, British newspaper The times reports.
The lynx was wiped out by hunting and habitat loss in Scotland and the rest of the UK about 500 years ago; however, populations survive in Central and Northern Europe.
Eurasian lynx can stand up to 27 inches high on the shoulder and weigh about 60 pounds, making them significantly larger than the lynxes and bobcats of Canada seen in some North American regions.
They eat about five pounds of meat a day. Their pure carnivorous diet means that many sheep farmers, a powerful foyer in the region, are strongly opposed to it. The National Farmers Union Scotland strongly opposed an earlier proposal to reintroduce lynx at a forest near Loch Lomond, The times reports.
However, evidence of public support for the establishment of lynx could result in the NatureScot regulatory agency issuing a license enabling the dramatic redevelopment plan. A new, year-long $ 65,000 study is being bankrolled by Povlsen and Rausing.
Advocates argue that farmers will be compensated for any livestock killed by lynx, as is the case in other officially managed reintroduction of species that have become extinct locally. They also say that lynx would help regenerate forest world by preying on predators nibbling on young trees, which slows their growth. One charity that supports the proposals to reintroduce lynx has said they believe there is enough habitat and prey in Scotland to support around 500 lynx.
Peter Cairns, executive director of Scotland: The Big Picture, said the study was aimed at circumventing “the tribal leaders” of bodies such as NFU Scotland and talking to individual farmers.
He said lynx reintroduced into the Highlands would spread and eventually cross over to northern England.