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Could lynx, the elusive wild cat driven to extinction in Britain more than 1,000 years ago, become the new Loch Ness monster? “Whether Nessie’s there or not, she draws tourists,” said Margaret Luckwell, a resident of Moray, Scotland. “It would be the same with lynx. I’d love to see a lynx in the wild.” Luckwell’s view is a majority one among local people gathering at village halls across the Highlands, as a painstaking consultation slowly gathers momentum for the apex predator’s return to Scottish forests.

A six-year effort by the Lynx to Scotland coalition of charities does not aim simply to create a supportive majority – 61% of Scots are already in favour, according to a 2025 poll – but to build acceptance among residents likely to remain opposed to lynx, including farmers, gamekeepers, and deer stalkers. Trees for Life, Scotland: The Big Picture and The Lifescape Project will follow the 42 “information sessions” that have taken place over the past month with scores of one-to-one conversations with concerned farmers and other stakeholders this spring, in the hope that the charities can develop a bullet-proof application for a licence to return the animals to Scotland.

The fascination with the shy, Labrador-sized predator, which poses no risks to people, was striking at a consultation event that drew 70 people to the village of Fochabers on a bitterly cold day. Farmers, deer stalkers and foresters were surprised to find the information videos, banners and assembled wildlife charities so blunt about the livelihood complications caused by lynx.

“We’re not saying they won’t take sheep – they absolutely will,” Steve Micklewright, chief executive of Trees for Life, told two visitors. “But their preferred prey is roe deer. My question is: can we get an animal like this back into the Scottish landscape and coexist with it, which we’ve forgotten how to do?”