A short history of Scotland's lost species 6: The Eurasian Lynx

Bones of lynx have been recorded from limestone caves the length and breadth of Britain. It used to be thought that the most recent of these bones was around 4000 years old, and that lynx died out around that time. Because there had been a period of natural climate change at roughly the same time, resulting in Britain receiving cooler temperatures and more rainfall, it was assumed that lynx couldn’t cope with the new conditions and died out naturally.

We now know that several British lynx bones are much younger than previously assumed. Specimens from North Yorkshire in northern England and from Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands have been radiocarbon-dated to the Roman era, while another bone from North Yorkshire gave a younger date still - this time from the early medieval period. This means that natural climate change can be ruled out as a cause for the lynx’s extinction in Britain. The ‘hard facts’ of relatively recent radiocarbon dates meant a hunt for the clues to a cultural relationship between Britain’s people and its native lynx population could be investigated more confidently. This has yielded faint traces of the lynx through the centuries.

The skull of a male lynx found in a limestone cave in Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands. Photo credit: National Museums Scotland.

In the Old Welsh language of early medieval Britain the word Llew seems to refer to lynx, while it’s possible that a similar word Lug may have been used for lynx in the Old Gaelic language of Ireland and Scotland. The Old English name for the species was Lox and perhaps this word would still be in use across the English-speaking world today if only the species’ extinction in England had occurred a few centuries later.

There is only one recognised lynx-associated place name in Britain today: the village of Lostford in the western English county of Shropshire, whose name has evolved through time from the Old English Lox’s ford or ‘ford of the lynx’. This single place name contrasts with the many more across Britain that refer to wolves, but is in keeping with the pattern reported from elsewhere in Europe, where lynx place names are greatly outnumbered by those recalling wolves, bears and foxes.

The hunting prowess of a heroic figure was celebrated in a poem called Pais Dinogad, written in the ancient Welsh language, as early as the 7th century AD. A lynx llewyn was just one of the species in the Cumbrian hills of north west England, along with wild boar and fox, that could not escape the hunter’s spear. Not too far away, the English monk Bede wrote a poem in Latin in the early 8th century AD in which he exhorts the shepherds of Northumbria to guard their sheepfolds ‘against nocturnal ambush and dark lions’, where ‘dark’ is probably being used to describe something predatory and malevolent rather than the animal’s colouration.

The hunting of a large cat by a rider on horseback with hounds is also depicted on a Pictish standing stone from the Scottish island of Eigg dating from the 9th century AD. The depiction of the cat has similarities to the way lions were typically presented in British biblical artwork, but it’s not possible to see whether the creature’s tail is long or short because the stone has been damaged. It does however appear to have ear tufts. Furthermore, the fact the cat is being hunted along with other large game animals, such as deer and boar, which were native to Scotland, suggests the stone depicts a hunting scene with Scottish animals. The island is itself too small to have supported a population of wild lynx, but the artwork is reminiscent of the style from the eastern Scottish mainland.

A hunting scene from the late 9th century Kildonnan cross-slab from the Hebridean island of Eigg. The animal at the top right, which appears to have tufted ears, may be a lynx. Photo credit: Historic Environment Scotland.

Another reference to a ‘lion’ comes from north Wales and is particularly interesting both because of the late date and the description of the animal and its behaviour. In a late 15th century poem by Dafydd Nanmor the beast is described as a Llew brych: literally a ‘speckled lion’ said, like the roebuck, to move to higher ground in summer. This reference appears to describe natural behaviour of a lynx and connects it with its favoured prey, suggesting lynx were following deer onto higher ground as they took advantage of seasonal feeding opportunities.

There is another later reference to British ‘lions’, this time relating to northern Scotland. Writing in 1587, English clergyman William Harrison describes how there had been very many ‘lions’ in northern Scotland, but goes on to say they were no longer heard of at his time of writing, explaining that he had not read how and when they were ‘destroied’. He describes these lions as having manes just like the lions of north-west Africa and, in so doing, may have embellished and exaggerated a cultural memory of a dwindling native lynx population to convey the untamed otherworldliness of the far-flung, Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, which was then a separate kingdom from England. As yet, there do not appear to be any other more recent references to native British lynx. Lynx fur was worn at the 16th century royal courts of James V and Mary I of Scotland, where it was known as ‘lucerve’ (from the medieval French word for lynx, loup-cervier, literally meaning 'deer wolf'). However, these furs almost certainly came from lynx from other parts of Europe.

The timings then of the radiocarbon dates and various pieces of cultural evidence suggest the Eurasian lynx survived longest in Britain in the hills and mountains of the north and west of the island. Given they represent Britain’s largest mountainous expanse, the Scottish Highlands are perhaps where one might expect the last of the British lynx to have made their final stand. They have acted as the last British stronghold for a long list of other persecuted species, including wolves, wildcats, pine martens, sea eagles, golden eagles, ospreys, and goshawks. The lynx may have held on there beyond the late Middle Ages into the early modern period. This is much more recently than was once thought, but is still centuries earlier than other mountainous areas of Europe.

The critical difference is the British uplands were deforested more severely and much earlier than other upland areas on continental Europe, with knock-on effects for woodland wildlife. The over-exploitation of timber resources, the clearance of trees for farmland and the failure of trees to regenerate in the face of chronic grazing pressure from many thousands of livestock, combined to reduce woodland cover significantly. For example, it’s thought Scotland could have lost more than half its woodland by two thousand years ago. By the time of the late 18th century, when lynx still remained in mountainous landscapes across Europe, Scotland was reduced to having just 4% woodland cover. This is far too little for a species with the habitat and huge space requirements of the Eurasian lynx.

Deer populations would have declined to low levels in the face of human over-exploitation, with roe and red deer becoming restricted to the Highlands. And just like everywhere else, lynx in Scotland would have been viewed both as an exploitable resource and a nuisance: a fur-bearing predator that competed with us for both deer and livestock. Such little remaining woodland cover and prey would have made eradication all the easier. By the time the lynx was close to extinction, Britain was also losing or had already lost its last aurochs, brown bear, elk, beaver and wild boar. Not being an ambush predator like the lynx, the wolf was less sensitive to deforestation and, being more mobile and adaptable in its diet, was better equipped to respond to reduced deer populations. The wolf’s demise came perhaps as late as the 18th century, following centuries of systematic persecution that had been encouraged by various laws and bounties.

To read more about the natural history of the Eurasian lynx and its complex relationship with humans, check out my book, The Lynx and Us. Lavishly illustrated with stunning images of wild lynx taken in the Swiss mountains by Laurent Geslin, the book also discusses the implications of reintroducing lynx to modern Scotland. It's available online including from the publisher SCOTLAND: The Big Picture and from Europe's largest specialist supplier of nature books, NHBS, where there are several reader reviews and where postage to outside the UK is cheapest.