Lynx captured after being illegally launched within the Highlands

Two lynxes illegally launched into the Highlands have been efficiently captured by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS).

The alarm was raised at round 16:20 on Wednesday after they have been noticed within the Drumguish space, close to Kingussie.

Experts from the charity labored with police all through the evening to humanely lure the cats. They are actually being cared for in quarantine amenities on the Highland Wildlife Park earlier than being transferred to Edinburgh Zoo.

The charity condemned the unlawful launch as “grossly irresponsible” and mentioned the lynx was prone to have died within the wild.

It says the pair seem like in good well being and have been named 'The Killiehuntly Two'.

Police Scotland are interesting for anybody with details about how the cats got here to be within the space Contact its non-emergency line.

David Barclay, supervisor of the RZSS Saving Wildcats workforce, mentioned they’ve put in dwell path cameras close to bait traps to catch the animals.

“It was a long night for our expert keepers who took turns keeping an eye out for any activity,” he mentioned.

“It was amazing to see the lynx being captured in a safe and humane way, which makes the loss of sleep worth it.

“Biosecurity laws mean the cats need to spend 30 days in suitable quarantine facilities, so we will transfer them from Highland Wildlife Park to Edinburgh Zoo, where we will assess their health and welfare.”

He mentioned the cats could ultimately return to Highland Wildlife Park, which is close to the place they have been trapped, “although it is too early to say for sure”.

Highland Wildlife Park is already house to 2 developed northern lynxes named Switch and Neon. The northern lynx is a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx.

David Field, chief government of the RZSS, mentioned the charity condemned the discharge of the hyperlinks “in the strongest possible terms”.

He mentioned: “This was a highly irresponsible act and it is highly unlikely that they would have survived in the jungle given the lack of adequate preparation.

“His abandonment was reckless to the animals, the public, the community and nature.”

“We are extremely grateful to all the local residents, estates, farmers and conservation partners who provided us and the police with information.”

Feral cats have been as soon as native to Britain, however have been pushed to extinction between 500 and 1,000 years in the past.

But some conservation teams are campaigning to reintroduce feral cats to Scotland.

Lynx to Scotland, a three-charity partnership working to revive the lynx within the Scottish Highlands, mentioned it had been made conscious of the discharge.

Peter Cairns, government director of Scotland: The Big Picture, one of many charities concerned, mentioned: “The Links to Scotland project requires no information about the origins of these two links, their history, health condition, or anything about who might have left them. Don't know.

“We understand the frustration of everyone who wants to see the lynx restored to the Scottish landscape, but illegal release is not the way to achieve that goal.”

Mr Cairns said the project had never endorsed or condemned illegal releases.

He added: “This is uncalled for and completely irresponsible, but it comes at the worst possible time, when stakeholders are in good faith with productive discussions about the possibility of a responsibly managed and fully resourced legal reintroduction.” “Joining in.”

RSPB Scotland said it was co-operating with police, relevant governing bodies and partner organisations.

A spokesperson said: “Whilst we assist the reintroduction of lynx as a former native species in Scotland, we work below official conservation translocation pointers and due to this fact don’t assist unofficial releases that solely again authorized conservation tasks. Let's push.”