Two more lynx have been seen in the Scottish Highlands, close to the site where two of the illegally released animals were captured on Thursday.
It is understood the pair were spotted on camera traps set by staff from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) in woods near Kingussie, in the Cairngorms, close to where the first two were trapped.
Police Scotland launched a criminal investigation into the release and urged the public not to approach the animals, which were seen in the Dell of Killiehuntly area. It is thought all four are from the same family group.
Insp Craig Johnstone said: “Members of the public are asked not to approach the animals for their own safety and the safety of the lynx.
“Officers are working with specially trained personnel to capture them safely and humanely. Although it may be tempting to try to find them, take pictures or set up cameras, we are asking people not to travel into the area, particularly in the current winter weather conditions.”
Earlier the force said its inquiries suggested “the sighting is connected with a release of two lynx seen in the same area on Wednesday 8 January. They were safely captured on Thursday 9 January.”
The unauthorised release of the animals, which worried local farmers and gamekeepers, has infuriated conservationists who are working on a lengthy and officially sanctioned project to set up an approved programme to reintroduce lynx in the region.
The RZSS, which is caring for the first pair at the Highland Wildlife Park near the capture site, said their release was “highly irresponsible”.
It said the animals, members of a wild cat species that appear to have been bred in captivity, would have been likely to die in the wild, particularly in the depths of winter.
They were released next to a forest road used regularly for logging operations, which put them at risk of being crushed by trucks. “Whoever did this has absolutely no regard for the welfare of these animals,” said one source.
It is understood the RZSS is using the same baited trap deployed to lure the two other cats back into captivity. Once caught, they will remain in quarantine at the wildlife park for 30 days before being taken to Edinburgh zoo.
The RZSS has a network of camera traps in nearby forests as part of a programme to repopulate the Cairngorms with wildcats, a native breed that has been on the brink of extinction, using animals bred at the wildlife park.
It released 19 satellite-tagged wildcats in October 2023, the first time a predatory mammal has been lawfully reintroduced in the UK. Some are already successfully breeding in the wild; the RZSS plans to release up to 60, in separate phases.
The first pair of lynx were spotted on Wednesday evening near a layby where straw bedding was strewn around, and they seemed to be comfortable around people.
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Willie Anderson, a deputy team leader of Cairngorm mountain rescue, came within 60 metres of the pair. “They had definitely been illegally released because they were 100 yards from a pile of straw bedding that contained dead chicks and, interestingly, porcupine quills – the bedding was peppered with porcupine quills,” he said on Thursday. “They were very tame and you could see they had been released from a nearby layby because there was the straw there, too. They were only 100 yards from that spot and the road. I don’t think they would have survived in the wild.”
Edward Mountain, a Scottish Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said local farmers and gamekeepers feared this could be a case of “guerrilla rewilding”, where activists were trying to circumvent the slow-paced official lynx reintroduction programme.
He said they feared the lynx could turn on their sheep and gamebirds out of hunger. There are reports some were prepared to shoot any lynx seen on their land. “They’re used to humans so I think the fear is that the cats could starve and will, in turn, turn to easy prey, which could be sheep or gamebirds, which is what the keepers are saying to me.”
He said local landowners believed this illegal activity was more widespread than acknowledged, and pointed to the unlawful release of beavers in parts of Perthshire in the early to mid-2000s.
Ecologists estimate about 1,000 beavers are living in the wild in Scotland, having spread across the southern Highlands, and colonising rivers in the Forth River catchment, west of Edinburgh.
Mountain said some land managers believed sea eagles and goshawks may have been illegally released in the area – a theory rejected by conservationists.
