Lynx
- Thread starter Janne
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I had a good read of what all articles I could find.
I think they made the right decision, if maybe for a whole bunch of poor reasons.
Britain has not has a big, apex carnivore in their ecology for a thousand years.
Their ecosystems have adjusted and if it ain't broke, don't fix it until it is.
Absolute fantasy to suppose that Lynx will take all kinds of small livestock. Bull-shirt.
But, opinions from the dreamers are hotter than science and fact.
Our coyotes are too damn busy killing sheep, given half a chance.
A couple of Llamas in the flock will even the odds in the first night.
Chickens? It's the fekking weasels that you have to kill off.
The wolves are busy with the deer and the elk and the caribou.
The big cats are dragging down deer and everybody has a feast with road kill.
Then we have the bears in the summers as well.
Bless the Bobcats and the Lynx.
It's an astounding bit of luck to get a long slow look at either one of them.
Yeah. Don't mess wth success.
I think they made the right decision, if maybe for a whole bunch of poor reasons.
Britain has not has a big, apex carnivore in their ecology for a thousand years.
Their ecosystems have adjusted and if it ain't broke, don't fix it until it is.
Absolute fantasy to suppose that Lynx will take all kinds of small livestock. Bull-shirt.
But, opinions from the dreamers are hotter than science and fact.
Our coyotes are too damn busy killing sheep, given half a chance.
A couple of Llamas in the flock will even the odds in the first night.
Chickens? It's the fekking weasels that you have to kill off.
The wolves are busy with the deer and the elk and the caribou.
The big cats are dragging down deer and everybody has a feast with road kill.
Then we have the bears in the summers as well.
Bless the Bobcats and the Lynx.
It's an astounding bit of luck to get a long slow look at either one of them.
Yeah. Don't mess wth success.
As a beef and sheep farmer this is great news even though I am far away from the proposed release site. As someone who appreciates nature and all wildlife I am a bit torn. Britain is missing large predators but as Robson valley says the wildlife here has been adapted and somewhat evolved to not have them there. British nature has evolved to be managed by people over hundreds of year (regrettably) but I don't think there is any going back now. This is a very crowded island with many millions of people living on it. Even if we weren't worried about the affect on livestock eventually people and their pets especially would get eaten. (Lynx wouldn't be enough on their own to make a difference to the deer they are supposed to manage there would soon be bears and wolves too)
What Britain needs is proper unbiased management by people taking out excess deer and other prey animals such as boar, hare, rabbits, grouse, anything that those top predators would eat to stop their numbers getting out of control. It seems to be working to some extent because the season that game animals are allowed to be shot are controlled so they couldn't be wiped out but I some areas they are either shot too heavily or not enough but there will always be a balance that needs to be met with compromise somehow it will never be ideal. One thing the large predators would be really beneficial for is controling the intermediate predators in the area and this will be controversial but especially badgers. In a lot of areas there are far too many badgers and they are a very destructive animal. They will eat anything they can catch and without proper limits on their numbers are very detrimental to anything lower down the food chain. Hedgehogs and ground nesting birds especially. 10 years ago hedgehogs were abundant here but we had no badgers either. I started seeing badger sign about the place and for a few years I found hedgehog skins and spines eaten out on the fields fairly often. Now I rarely see them and no longer do my dogs find hedgehogs about the place. It used to be a monthly occurrence to find one of my dogs with a bloody nose trying to get at a hedgehog around the yard
a controlled and unbiased and localised cull of most animals is probably necessary at some point. We have reached the point with badgers here now. There are too many for the local ecosystem to feed sustainably. A few miles away that might not be the case and the badger population is fine or even not high enough and should be left. Nothing is as straight forward as we like to think it is in nature. It's complex and all interdependent on each and every level. We messed up big time when we removed to large predators but there is no going back now. Britain is a man managed landscape now. There is no getting away from it unless most of us moved away. Just by so many people being here we are affecting things even if we stopped going out into the country. Wildlife is attracted to food look at how many urban foxes there are now. You would soon have urban bears and lynx with no fear of people. That would end well
Im rambling now
anyway! What nature needs is balance. With no natural large predators people need to, and can if allowed to, take their place in an unbiased way with no ulterior motives or emotional connection with proper understanding of what is happening and the affects of what they do when they do go out to take some of the animals that are getting unsustainably high in number. How we will ever accomplish that I don't know when so many people are controlled by their emotions and voice their opinions so loudly. And when people make up rules to suit the loud minority who often don't understand the consequences of what they demand. Full protection of badgers being one example. Some raptors might fit into that category too in some areas there are no very large raptors to control them now. Ravens would be another in this area there are hundreds if not thousands of them. Not good for any smaller birds.
I realize this will be controversial but it is what it is.
What Britain needs is proper unbiased management by people taking out excess deer and other prey animals such as boar, hare, rabbits, grouse, anything that those top predators would eat to stop their numbers getting out of control. It seems to be working to some extent because the season that game animals are allowed to be shot are controlled so they couldn't be wiped out but I some areas they are either shot too heavily or not enough but there will always be a balance that needs to be met with compromise somehow it will never be ideal. One thing the large predators would be really beneficial for is controling the intermediate predators in the area and this will be controversial but especially badgers. In a lot of areas there are far too many badgers and they are a very destructive animal. They will eat anything they can catch and without proper limits on their numbers are very detrimental to anything lower down the food chain. Hedgehogs and ground nesting birds especially. 10 years ago hedgehogs were abundant here but we had no badgers either. I started seeing badger sign about the place and for a few years I found hedgehog skins and spines eaten out on the fields fairly often. Now I rarely see them and no longer do my dogs find hedgehogs about the place. It used to be a monthly occurrence to find one of my dogs with a bloody nose trying to get at a hedgehog around the yard
a controlled and unbiased and localised cull of most animals is probably necessary at some point. We have reached the point with badgers here now. There are too many for the local ecosystem to feed sustainably. A few miles away that might not be the case and the badger population is fine or even not high enough and should be left. Nothing is as straight forward as we like to think it is in nature. It's complex and all interdependent on each and every level. We messed up big time when we removed to large predators but there is no going back now. Britain is a man managed landscape now. There is no getting away from it unless most of us moved away. Just by so many people being here we are affecting things even if we stopped going out into the country. Wildlife is attracted to food look at how many urban foxes there are now. You would soon have urban bears and lynx with no fear of people. That would end well Im rambling now
anyway! What nature needs is balance. With no natural large predators people need to, and can if allowed to, take their place in an unbiased way with no ulterior motives or emotional connection with proper understanding of what is happening and the affects of what they do when they do go out to take some of the animals that are getting unsustainably high in number. How we will ever accomplish that I don't know when so many people are controlled by their emotions and voice their opinions so loudly. And when people make up rules to suit the loud minority who often don't understand the consequences of what they demand. Full protection of badgers being one example. Some raptors might fit into that category too in some areas there are no very large raptors to control them now. Ravens would be another in this area there are hundreds if not thousands of them. Not good for any smaller birds. I realize this will be controversial but it is what it is.
How are they fitting back into the ecosystem in Sweden? Right back in without a hiccup I would think?
Luckily they are unlikely to swim across the channel
Though I have read of a polar bear that ended up on one of the Scottish isles in a particular cold winter in 1800 something I forget the exact year. So you never know what might turn up one day
As far as I now ( from friends, family and media) they are breeding fast and increasing. They have now reached an area south of Stockholm.
A friend, avid hunter, told me a few years back about how many boar there were in his hunting area ( just north of Stockholm) and the devastation they did.
When I met him this year, he told me the boar were gone. And the wolves have started dining on farm animals....
The last casualty was ( in media) a hunting dog a few weeks ago.
No human casualties yet.
We have Lynx in Sweden. Despite countless days in the wild, all I have seen are tracks and scat. Very few times. I have seen bear scat more times than Lynx scat.
A friend, avid hunter, told me a few years back about how many boar there were in his hunting area ( just north of Stockholm) and the devastation they did.
When I met him this year, he told me the boar were gone. And the wolves have started dining on farm animals....
The last casualty was ( in media) a hunting dog a few weeks ago.
No human casualties yet.
We have Lynx in Sweden. Despite countless days in the wild, all I have seen are tracks and scat. Very few times. I have seen bear scat more times than Lynx scat.
In the various mountain ranges around me, the Mountain Caribou is on the endangered Red List.
Large tracts of land are closed in winter to snowmobile traffic as the wolves use the compacted trail to run down their prey.
If wolves are doing well in Sweden, the prey population must be very good as well as puppy suvivorship.
Time to thin the pack sizes. Are there snowmobile closures there as well?
Don't feel badly if you haven't seen any of the big cats in the wild.
I don't see them maybe one day in 20? and always a surprise for both of us.
Once, I watched a Lynx pair with their 3 kittens = quite a memory.
I've never seen a Bobcat or a Cougar standing still. Always running.
Set up a trail camera, might not take more than a night or two.
Cut a winter trail and set up where there's a deadfall log across the trail.
Lynx never duck under = they always jump over such logs.
Large tracts of land are closed in winter to snowmobile traffic as the wolves use the compacted trail to run down their prey.
If wolves are doing well in Sweden, the prey population must be very good as well as puppy suvivorship.
Time to thin the pack sizes. Are there snowmobile closures there as well?
Don't feel badly if you haven't seen any of the big cats in the wild.
I don't see them maybe one day in 20? and always a surprise for both of us.
Once, I watched a Lynx pair with their 3 kittens = quite a memory.
I've never seen a Bobcat or a Cougar standing still. Always running.
Set up a trail camera, might not take more than a night or two.
Cut a winter trail and set up where there's a deadfall log across the trail.
Lynx never duck under = they always jump over such logs.
Yes, snowmobiles are largely banned I believe. Not for the Reindeer herding Same.
As all hunt ( deer, moose) is well regulated, there is a lot of Wolf food out there.
Reindeer, Moose in the north, Moose and Deer in the middle, plus a morsel of two of Boar.
I do not know how many Wolves are shot legally each year, but it is not many. I guess that will change once a human is eaten.
As my hunter friend told me - there is a reason that wolves were hunted to extinction in Sweden.
Lynx have always been quite rare. Even historically.
As all hunt ( deer, moose) is well regulated, there is a lot of Wolf food out there.
Reindeer, Moose in the north, Moose and Deer in the middle, plus a morsel of two of Boar.
I do not know how many Wolves are shot legally each year, but it is not many. I guess that will change once a human is eaten.
As my hunter friend told me - there is a reason that wolves were hunted to extinction in Sweden.
Lynx have always been quite rare. Even historically.
I read that the plan was to release 3 pairs of European Lynx, not quite the same as our Lynx by the looks of them.
Maybe their reproductive success is lower than here? 2-3 kits and hope they all make it into the reproductive age class,
won't be an explosive population growth under any circumstances with the huge territories that they need.
In correct ecology textbook terms, predators manage to consume about 10% of the prey. Fact.
Maybe from 5% to 30%, depending on the particular ecosystem you study.
Sloppy livestock management would present golden opportunities and that's not likely to change.
I know where there's a den in a cliff-side (+/- 50m) that used to be occupied.
A few warm, dead bush bunnies ought to bring out the cats if they are using it.
Last year's kits might still be at home and mommy is probably preggers again, as well.
I quit hunting that area on the day that I watched the Lynx family.
Our wolf packs are quite wary of attacking humans, certainly not in groups.
That's the main reason that everybody in the back country needs to wear
a Pieps avalanche beacon. Search And Rescue needs to find your body, as soon as it is safe to do so,
before the fekking wolves dig up your sorry bottom and make a meal of you.
Maybe their reproductive success is lower than here? 2-3 kits and hope they all make it into the reproductive age class,
won't be an explosive population growth under any circumstances with the huge territories that they need.
In correct ecology textbook terms, predators manage to consume about 10% of the prey. Fact.
Maybe from 5% to 30%, depending on the particular ecosystem you study.
Sloppy livestock management would present golden opportunities and that's not likely to change.
I know where there's a den in a cliff-side (+/- 50m) that used to be occupied.
A few warm, dead bush bunnies ought to bring out the cats if they are using it.
Last year's kits might still be at home and mommy is probably preggers again, as well.
I quit hunting that area on the day that I watched the Lynx family.
Our wolf packs are quite wary of attacking humans, certainly not in groups.
That's the main reason that everybody in the back country needs to wear
a Pieps avalanche beacon. Search And Rescue needs to find your body, as soon as it is safe to do so,
before the fekking wolves dig up your sorry bottom and make a meal of you.
In rural Sweden, most farmed animals are ‘free range’ so a tempting meal.
Considering the amount of Swedish people spending quality time in nature ( you call it bushcrafting) it is just a matter of time before a human is a meal.
The European Lynx is a large cat. Males up to 30 kilos.
I can not imagine a viable population is possible in UK, not unless it is artificially fed.
Considering the amount of Swedish people spending quality time in nature ( you call it bushcrafting) it is just a matter of time before a human is a meal.
The European Lynx is a large cat. Males up to 30 kilos.
I can not imagine a viable population is possible in UK, not unless it is artificially fed.
Well we do have wild large felines here. "The beast of exmoor" reputed to be a puma was seen only last June not 20 miles away from my home. Every year livestock are found in a state that experts agree is not normal predator for the area . There are photos of it and I believe it to be true. I have friends in the farming community who will tell you about it. And I've seen a kill site..
I read a story long ago about some US WW II service men that turned a pair of cougar juveniles loose in the northern UK.
Trail cams/stealth cams, whatever you want to call them, are really effective. We need real pictures and video.
Cameras "inside the city limits" of Prince George, BC capture images of all sorts of wildlife, big cats included.
All sorts, as they silently go about their daily and nightly business.
The camera dude is absolutley gifted when he plans placement.
Put 3 cameras over a kill site for 6 weeks.
Resist the urge to take a look.
Even your footprints stink of human.
Trail cams/stealth cams, whatever you want to call them, are really effective. We need real pictures and video.
Cameras "inside the city limits" of Prince George, BC capture images of all sorts of wildlife, big cats included.
All sorts, as they silently go about their daily and nightly business.
The camera dude is absolutley gifted when he plans placement.
Put 3 cameras over a kill site for 6 weeks.
Resist the urge to take a look.
Even your footprints stink of human.
There is a wild cat species in UK I believe?
But it is smaller than a Lynx, so needs much less, smaller prey, and smaller territory.
I had to look it up, but the estimade number in Sweden is around 1500 animals, in Finlsnd around 2500.
And those countries are, compared to UK, very unpopulated with large areas covered with deep forests.
But it is smaller than a Lynx, so needs much less, smaller prey, and smaller territory.
I had to look it up, but the estimade number in Sweden is around 1500 animals, in Finlsnd around 2500.
And those countries are, compared to UK, very unpopulated with large areas covered with deep forests.
Don't ever expect the territory to match the size of the animals.
Maybe they just pi$$ eachother off and need a lot of elbow space.
We have woodpecker species like that. They do not tolerate crowding.
Resources such as food have nothing to do with living.
There's a Scottish Wildcat. Magnificent critter with very small external ears.
Their metabolism will dictate their gross production which must include net production and reproduction.
Eurasian Lynx might not even compete with them for resouces if the territory overlaps.
Maybe they just pi$$ eachother off and need a lot of elbow space.
We have woodpecker species like that. They do not tolerate crowding.
Resources such as food have nothing to do with living.
There's a Scottish Wildcat. Magnificent critter with very small external ears.
Their metabolism will dictate their gross production which must include net production and reproduction.
Eurasian Lynx might not even compete with them for resouces if the territory overlaps.
Any big cats released into the UK would be artificially fed on the livestock that are everywhere here. They wouldn't touch the deer they are meant to kill when there are so many slow moving sheep for them to eat.
Yes there is a Scottish wildcat and there are apparently some on the berwyn mountain near me (a friend found a dead one a few years ago and took it to a taxidermist who confirmed it) but they are very very rare in wales most experts would say there are none. They could well be right by now. I don't think they are very common at all now in Scotland either. One of the biggest threats to them is crossbreeding with domestic cats.
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