Mountain rescuer 'shocked' after coming 'face-to-face' with two lynx in Highlands

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A mountain rescue hero has shared his close encounter with two lynx that were illegally released into the Highlands earlier this week.Willie Anderson, deputy team leader of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, said he came within 60 yards of the animals after his neighbour raised the alarm to him.The pair were first spotted wandering woodland in the Drumguish area, near Kingussie, on Wednesday afternoon before being safely captured the following day.

Incredibly, two more lynx have been seen on the loose in the area on Friday morning, with police and specially trained staff working to locate them.Willie said: "They had definitely been illegally released because they were 100 yards from a pile of straw bedding that contained dead chicks and interestingly porcupine quills - the bedding was peppered with porcupine quills."They were very tame and you could see they had been released from a nearby layby because there was the straw there too.

They were only 100 yards from that spot and the road. I don't think they would have survived in the wild."Willie contacted the nearby Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig, run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which also operates Edinburgh Zoo.He added: "The park had traps they use for their Scottish wildcat reintroduction programme, so they left baited cages and incredibly they caught both.

The cages also had cameras so staff could monitor them."To catch one lynx in a cage was great but two was really fantastic. I have done a few rescues in my time but this was one of the more unusual events that I have come across."A spokesperson for the park said they had taken care of the wild cats, believing it was unlikely they would have survived in a rural area.