Making Room for Predators

Predators across Europe are making a comeback, much of it through natural recolonization. Wolves have recently been spotted in both the Netherlands and Belgium while lynx have once again spread across Scandinavia and Russia. In areas where the Eurasian lynx have been unable to recover on their own, for example in areas in central and western Europe where the landscape is heavily fragmented, ambitious reintroduction projects have facilitated their return. People in Germany, Switzerland and France are once sharing their forests with the Eurasian lynx. Britain and Ireland now remain the last countries in Europe whose landscapes are devoid of large predators. 

Human-Wildlife Conflict

Though attacks on people are virtually unheard of, lynx do pose a threat to livestock, in particular, sheep. However, in many areas where lynx and sheep coexist, depredation of sheep is uncommon.  Protection against other predators like wolves and bears in areas like Romania and Croatia, through fencing or livestock guardian dogs, provide effective protection against any threat from the much smaller lynx. Of the areas where lynx and sheep coexist, Norway experiences the highest rates of sheep depredation. In Britain, like in many areas across Europe, sheep are grazed in open areas protected by fences. In Norway, sheep spend the summer and autumn grazing in woodland areas with little human intervention. Since lynx are an ambush predator, keeping sheep in open pastures protected by fences, as opposed to the Norwegian approach, seems to provide highly effective protection against lynx. Compensation payments and livestock guardian dogs provide other opportunities to manage any potential conflict with lynx in Britain.  

Trophic cascades

As apex predators declined and disappeared across their range, top-down control of herbivores went with them. The natural world is now experiencing a herbivore problem across many parts of the globe. High densities of herbivores brings challenges for biodiversity conservation, forestry human and more. Restoring predators has been proposed as a possible solution to this problem.

Through both consumptive and non-consumptive effects, lynx could help manage populations of native roe deer in Britain. Consumptive effects refers to the direct numerical effect of predation, while non-consumptive effects describe their effects on prey behaviour, morphology and physiology. Their impact on the larger red deer (Cervus elaphus) would likely be small as they typically prefer roe deer in areas where both species of deer coexist. What’s more, red deer have adapted to living in the open landscapes of Britain, which is unsuitable hunting habitat for lynx. When hunting roe deer, lynx do not show significant prey-selectivity, often taking prime adult of breeding age. This means their predation effect would likely be additive rather than compensatory because they don’t preferentially select older and weaker individuals that would otherwise succumb to other forms of mortality. Lynx could also control roe deer populations through the landscape of fear their presence would likely create. However, unlike wolves, lynx are an elusive predator and the degree to which they could create a landscape of fear is unclear. While lynx would likely have an impact on roe deer populations in Britain through these mechanisms, whether this would be significant enough to restore denuded landscapes is another matter.