The Missing Lynx Project is a partnership between Northumberland Wildlife Trust (NWT), The Lifescape Project and the Wildlife Trusts exploring the possibility of reintroducing the predator to Northumberland as well as parts of Cumbria and southern Scotland.
Eurasian Lynx are medium-sized cats around the size of a Labrador and were historically native to Britain.
READ MORE: Lynx reintroduction to county opposed by councillors
However, the cats died out in medieval times and a potential reintroduction has been met with stiff resistance, particularly from the farming community. A touring exhibition allowing the public was held across Northumberland from April last year until the end of summer.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that the exhibition is set to return in the new year 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.
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.
However, 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”. Ungulates, such as sheep, deer and goats, represented 80 per cent of kills, while smaller animals such as beavers, hares and foxes made up the other 20 per cent. The same study found one individual lynx was responsible for 54 kills in a 100-day period.
Similar proposals were brought forward in 2018 by the Lynx Trust UK. However, plans to release six lynx into Kielder Forest were turned down by then-Environment Secretary Michael Gove.