In a letter to The Cumberland News, Rodney Jeremiah, who lives at Penton, near Carlisle, criticised the move by The Missing Lynx Project to reintroduce the predator into the uplands of north Cumbria and Northumberland ‘under the guise of boosting diversity’.
‘The organisations that are promoting this scheme are being deliberately disingenuous as the inevitable result will be the exact opposite. The indigenous fauna that inhabit these areas; ground nesting birds such as Curlew, Peewits, Golden Plover and many others, along with Hares and other mammals will be severely predated. The sad fact is that all these species are already in serious decline and the introduction of this large carnivore will only hasten the problem, ‘ sid Mr Jeremiah in his letter.
He added the effect on farming communities, already suffering financial hardship, was a ‘very real issue, and well documented’, but the inevitable damage to the existing fauna was hardly considered by the proponents of this ‘idealistic folly’.
Mr Jeremiah was referring to an article in last Friday’s The Cumberland News, on the travelling exhibition that toured Northumberland, the edge of Cumbria and the border of southern Scotland would be returning this month, and as part of its tour would be coming to Carlisle’s University of Cumbria on January 23 to 25, open to the public, and January 27 – 31 for students only.
The team behind the project have explained that the return of the apex predator would help boost the UK’s notably poor levels of biodiversity. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet.
It is understood that the exhibition is returning ahead of the findings of consultations being released. Public support has been described as vital to any future reintroduction, with residents urged to visit the exhibition and make their views known.
But Mr Jeremiah added: ‘If the supporters of this scheme are genuinely interested in supporting ‘wildlife and biodiversity’ they would be better employed in devoting their energies into taking measures to encourage the recovery of the wildlife that we still have, by sympathetic management of their natural habitat and of the countryside in general’.
Despite the claimed advantages, sheep farmers in particular remain vehemently opposed due to fears the cats could prey on livestock. The loss of a ewe would represent a financial hit of around £200 for farmers, while a calf would be £1,200.
The Lynx UK Trust has consistently maintained that lynx are not a threat to livestock, saying evidence from mainland Europe suggests a single animal takes, on average, 0.4 sheep a year.
In 2017, the Guardian reported that the trust argued lynx showed “virtually no interest in killing sheep” and that their appetite for foxes would reduce fox-on-sheep predation.
However, according to the BBC, a study in Norway found that “sheep represented 64 per cent of ungulates killed by 24 lynx monitored over a five-year period”.