Environment
The Missing Lynx

flickr/blacktigersdream
Deer, on the surface, seem like one of the most graceful and harmless animals one could come across in the UK. Any traveller on a British railway will be familiar with seeing the fragile-looking mammal graze upon a verdant field. Yet, as unassuming as they may seem deer pose perhaps the greatest threat to the biodiversity of the country. Essentially, without any natural predators – except ourselves – they have been allowed to breed and feed unhindered. Despite attempts to cull a sufficient proportion of them each year in order to maintain the semblance of natural predation their population continues to rise. This year it is estimated that around two million deer survive in the forests and countryside of Great Britain; a vastly unsustainable number.
It’s not that deer are inherently damaging animals. Rather, the over abundance of any creature is detrimental to a natural world that requires balance in order to be sustainable – as is proven by the rapacious effect our own species has had on the planet. Too many deer harm the diversity of precious woodland habitats and spoil suitable environments for other species, particularly migrant songbirds like the nightingale. Not to mention their habit of destroying sapling trees and causing thousands of road accidents a year. Should their population continue to explode these problems will accelerate. The remaining British wilderness exists in an unnatural state where deer hold dominion over the land. The king of the British forest is a reclusive herbivore. Hardly an exciting prospect for the growing ecotourism industry, is it?
So, what’s the solution?
Currently the measures being implemented to control the UK deer population are ineffective and the philosophy behind them troubling. The British Deer Society, a charity claiming to promote the existence and sustainability of deer for the generations to come, have written on their website a peculiar phrase: ‘…our requirements take precedence over those of other creatures, and truly “wild” habitats no longer exist in Britain’
The BDS evidently believe in the philosophy that has caused this mess in the first place: that we matter more than the animals we share the planet with. Restricting nature to convenient corrals like parks and fenced in forests is not really how one goes about creating ‘truly wild’ habitats. Deer are not cattle. They have been able to procreate so freely because throughout history we have scourged the British land of its natural predators and replaced them with livestock. Yet, as natural disasters and global warming related problems prove, despite our technological intelligence we are still very much at the mercy of nature. This issue of deer overpopulation is no different. Even the most prolific deerstalker will not be able to solve this problem with brute force. In order to find a solution a new philosophy is needed.
Lo and behold, this month saw the launch of the charity Rewilding Britain. The charity actively campaigns for the reintroduction of several species into the UK: from wolves to wild boar. In creating a more diverse ecological landscape they hope to rebuild the natural processes that over-time the British wilderness has lost. From supporting the establishment of areas seabed to be made free from dredging and trawling to new methods of farming that allow animals to roam freely around estates, Rewilding Britain take a wholly different view than the BDS does of how we should form a relationship with the environment. Of course, the concept of rewilding is driven by human intervention and could, therefore, be argued to be unnatural. However, if human intervention banished these habitats and species from Britain in the first place then surely it should be our responsibility to bring them back. Though rewilding isn’t just an apologetic conservation ideal. It could actually solve some of the UK’s most pressing environmental problems, like deer.
Enter the Eurasian lynx: an elusive, carnivorous feline that could once have kept the deer population in Britain within sustainable levels. Since its departure the only things killing deer in this country have been the
landed gentry, unsuspecting motorists, disgruntled farmers or people carrying out controlled culls (which, as the Deer Initiative have admitted, are largely feckless pursuits in actually controlling the population). A 2013 study stated that in order for the deer population to remain within sustainable levels in Britain up to 50% of the population would have to be shot each year. That works out, at current estimates, at around 1 million deer every year; a monumental task even for the most ardent hunter.
Rewilding Britain propose that instead of exerting the enormous amount of effort and financial resources such a gigantic cull would require, we simply allow the laws of nature to solve the problem for us. If deer have no natural predators then lets introduce one: the lynx.
This isn’t exactly a new idea. Lynx have been re-introduced to several habitats across Europe after human impact pushed them out and the Lynx UK Trust are currently attempting to get the go-ahead for a trial re-introduction to Britain. However, should this come closer to becoming a reality it can be guaranteed that sceptics would begin to make their voices heard. Despite the evident benefits lynx could provide to the UK wilderness – from managing the deer population to adding much needed diversity to our forests – already doubts are being broadcast by academics and farmers alike. The latter group will surely campaign for a compensation system, even though lynx have been found to be responsible for the mortality of less that 0.5% of the total number of available sheep in a given area (far less than deaths caused by disease). Professor Chris Thomas at the University of York has also stated that the endangered capercaillie could be under threat should lynx be introduced, although he provided no evidence for such an assumption in his article on the BBC News website. If the Lynx UK Trust begin to garner more success doubts such as these will only become more numerous.
It seems to me that the human race has a great deal to atone for when it comes to the environment. We’re directly responsible for the extinction of several species; we continually destroy wilderness in order to make way for houses with bare, lifeless gardens; we do not even respect the creatures around us enough to know their names as common knowledge. If we can make up for our plethora of ruinous errors, if only a little, then I see no justifiable barriers as to why the lynx should not be re-introduced into Britain. Plus, who wouldn’t love to catch sight of a pointy-eared predator skulking through a British forest? It’s a hell of a lot more exciting than seeing deer through the window of a train.
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