John Swinney rules out reintroduction of lynx to Scotland

One farmer pointed out that reintroduced beavers had caused damage worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Swinney said there needed to be a “considered discussion” around reintroducing species, pointing out that the beaver population in Perthshire was now “formidably more comprehensive than it was at the beginning”.

He said he had witnessed “very directly and dramatically” the impact of beavers on flood prevention measures in his own constituency.

Some wildlife groups are keen to see lynx one day roam free under legal reintroductions.

Peter Cairns of the Lynx to Scotland Project, a three-charity partnership working to restore them to the Scottish Highlands, said there was no reason why there could not be a “carefully-managed” reintroduction.

He said: “John Swinney’s government was brave enough to declare a climate emergency when others were sitting on the fence.

“The climate and biodiversity crises are inextricably linked, so we should be clear about the choice we face: we either support the sometimes uneasy business of co-existence with wild animals, like lynx, or we endorse their absolute exclusion.”

He added that consistent polling pointed to “more Scots than ever before” supporting a carefully-managed lynx reintroduction.

“If countries like Uganda or Sri Lanka, with much higher human populations and lower GDPs, can somehow manage to co-exist with elephants, leopards or lions, it is hard to argue that Scotland can’t accommodate a medium-sized cat like the lynx,” he said.