Stupid idea! Cumbria is one of the last bastions of the White Clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) and funding for a conservation scheme was recently DECLINED. The crayfish is a native species critically endangered worldwide... no funding. Lynx, conservation status "least concern" and there's funding for a reintroduction of a locally extinct species? Madness, absolute madness.
That's incredible! Once they are gone then their genetic stock is gone forever - which could be sooner than we think.