The story of the magnificent lynx--what its extinction in Britain
signifies, and how we might turn the ecological tide.
In The Missing Lynx, Ross Barnett uses case studies, new fossil
discoveries, biomolecular evidence and more to paint pictures of these
extinct species, and to explore the significance of the lynx's
disappearance in ecological terms. He also discusses how the Britons
that these animals shared their home with might have viewed them, and
why some survived while others vanished.
Barnett also looks in detail and the realistic potential of
reintroductions and even of resurrection--topics that capture public
interest today. With Beaver now wild again in various parts of Britain
and even Great Bustard on Salisbury Plain, what about the return of
sabretooths, mammoths, and the aurochs to modern ecosystems? Will we
ever be able to bring these animals back? And should we?
At a time where rewilding is moving from pie-in-the-sky to actual
reality, this timely and important book looks from a scientific
perspective at the magnificent megafauna we've lost, why we lost it and
what happened as a result, and how we might realistically turn the
ecological tide.
