Four Eurasian Lynx brothers have moved into a brand-new woodland enclosure at Hoo Zoo & Dinosaur World near Telford. The Eurasian Lynx was previously native to the United Kingdom but went extinct in the country approximately 1,300 years ago.
Brothers, Cain, Lucifer, Amenadiel and Zadkiel were born at the zoo in 2022 and recently celebrated their second birthday. The brothers are now fully grown, and the zoo made the decision to move them to a larger habitat in their new ‘Land of the Beasts’ attraction which recently opened during May Half Term.
Eurasian Lynx went extinct in the UK primarily due to a combination of habitat loss, human persecution, and the decline of their prey. As agriculture expanded and forests were cleared for farmland, the dense woodland habitats that lynx relied on were significantly reduced. During the Middle Ages, lynx were also extensively hunted for their fur and were a perceived threat to livestock, further driving down their numbers.
“Eurasian Lynx would have roamed the United Kingdom thousands of years ago and as far back as the last Ice Age, before being driven to extinction. Our four lynx brothers are ambassadors for their species and are a stark reminder that if we don’t take conservation seriously, then we will lose some of the world’s most amazing creatures,” said Hoo Zoo & Dinosaur World owner, Will Dorrell.
“Eurasian Lynx have already been re-introduced to countries in Mainland Europe including in France, Germany and Austria, with some areas of these countries now home to stable populations of the species. Although our male lynx won’t be reintroduced to the wild, moving them to their new habitat in Land of the Beasts is the first stage of our plans for them and we hope to build an expanded woodland habitat for them in the near future.”
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