Until recently, scientists believed that Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) became extinct in the UK over 4,000 years ago when the climate became cool and wet. But new radiocarbon data on lynx bones found in the Moughton Fell Fissure Cave and Kinsey Caves in the Craven area of North Yorkshire show that lynx were still present in the early medieval era, just 1500 years ago.
In addition, analysis of a piece of ancient British poetry indicates that lynx were present in the Lake District in the 7th century AD. These findings are published online in the Journal of Quaternary Science.
“Taken together these findings indicate that lynx survived the change in the climate, and were most probably driven to extinction when people cut down the forests and effectively destroyed the lynx’s habitat,” says ecologist Dr David Hetherington who carried out the research as part of his PhD within the Department of Zoology at the University of Aberdeen.
This has important implications. While zoologists believe that it would be unethical to reintroduce a species that has been made extinct by natural climate change, the European Union’s Habitats Directive obliges member states to consider reintroducing a species that have been killed off by human action. “One species on the list of possible candidates is the Eurasian lynx,” says Hetherington.
“Reintroduction as a conservation tool should only be considered when the causes of extinction were driven by humans and are no longer operating. Much of Scotland, for example, has recently been reafforested and could be suitable for lynx once more,” says Hetherington.
The linguistic evidence is found in Pais Dinogad, a 7th century poem that celebrated a father’s hunting prowess. It was written in Cumbric, a language related to Welsh and once spoken over much of northern England. Translation has been problematic because one of the phrases seems to indicate that one of the animals the father hunted was lynx. This interpretation was initially dismissed because of the assumption that lynx had died-out long before the poem was written. “We now have a radiocarbon date for a similar period of time on bones found only 80 km away from Derwent Water where the poem was set – there is no reason why lynx weren’t running around this area at the time the poem was written,” says Hetherington.
The new radiocarbon data therefore enables the poem to be translated with greater ease, and intriguingly this then provides more evidence of the lynx’s presence in recent history.
Placing the research in context, Dr Hetherington said: “This is the first step in a much broader assessment of whether it is feasible to reintroduce the lynx to Britain”.
