At the Edge

In 2018, former Scottish Cabinet Secretary Fergus Ewing declared that the reintroduction of lynx to Scotland would happen "over my dead body."
Seven years later, in 2025, First Minister John Swinney echoed that position, telling the National Farmers Union Scotland that lynx would not be reintroduced on his watch.
These statements stand in stark contrast to the Scottish Government's own commitment to restore and regenerate nature by 2045.
So, while scientists and conservationists continue to build an ever-stronger ecological case for bringing lynx back, the biggest barrier is no longer habitat or prey. It's politics.
Additional info
At the Edge is an independent media and communications platform exploring new ways for people and wildlife to thrive together.
Follow us on Instagram, or join me, Peter Cairns, on LinkedIn and Bluesky. And if you like what we do, please consider Buying Me A Coffee to support the production of future podcasts and other content.
This episode of At The Edge is produced in partnership with Adventurous Audio and is kindly supported by Ballintean Mountain Lodge.
Useful links
Meet the contributors from this episode on social media: Colin Murdoch, Lizzy Westman, Ruari Ormiston, John MacPherson and Ariane Burgess.
My thanks to Charlotte Maddix for checking the finer political framing.
Learn more about Lynx to Scotland and The Missing Lynx Project - both sites provide a wealth of information about lynx and the current conversation about their potential reintroduction.
David Hetherington's book The Lynx and Us, is an excellent resource for background information about lynx.
Read the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045.

Grouse shooting, sheep farming and predator control are all deeply embedded in the fabric of the British countryside. These practices, like many forms of land and wildlife management, are defended – in part at least – by tradition. But what does tradition really mean?
In this episode, we explore why tradition carries such weight, whether it should be challenged, and how many of the practices we currently accept as 'traditional' would survive scrutiny if they were proposed for the first time today?

Additional info
At the Edge is an independent media and communications platform exploring new ways for people and wildlife to thrive together.
Follow us on Instagram, or join me, Peter Cairns, on LinkedIn and Bluesky. And if you like what we do, please consider Buying Me A Coffee to support the production of future podcasts and other content.
This episode of At The Edge is produced in partnership with Adventurous Audio and is kindly supported by Ballintean Mountain Lodge.
Useful links
Meet the contributors from this episode on LinkedIn: Katharine Hay, Thorsten Gieser, Dee Ward, and Jack Bamber.
Read Katharine Hay's feature on the guga hunt in the Scotsman.
Read the NatureScot statement on the guga hunt.
Learn about Thorsten Gieser's position on wolves in Germany, and his recognition of the role of tradition.
Learn about the Cairngorms Connect Predator Project.
More background reading on the debate around driven grouse shooting:
Environmental impacts of driven grouse shooting (published in Ibis).
Sustainable driven grouse shooting by The Moorland Association.
Alternatives to driven grouse shooting by Mark Avery.

At first glance, Scotland’s ‘deer problem’ appears to be an ecological issue: too many hungry mouths putting pressure on already depleted woodlands and peatlands.
Beneath the surface, however, debates over deer numbers, deer impacts and deer economics, reflect a much deeper ideological divide about what the Scottish uplands are for, and who gets to shape their future.
The deer problem, in other words, is really a people problem.
Additional info
At the Edge is an independent media and communications platform exploring how people and wildlife can thrive together.
Follow us on Instagram, or join me, Peter Cairns, on LinkedIn and Bluesky. And if you like what we do, please consider Buying Me A Coffee to support the production of future podcasts and other content.
This episode of At The Edge is produced in partnership with Adventurous Audio and is kindly supported by Ballintean Mountain Lodge.
Useful links
Meet the contributors from this episode on LinkedIn: Thomas MacDonnel, Donald Rowantree, Callum Leavey-Wilson, Sam Tedcastle, Nicola Williamson.
Read Views from the Hill by Callum Leavey-Wilson
Learn more about the work of The Common Ground Forum
Learn more about the Affric Highlands red deer tracking project
Learn more about the Centre for Good Relations
Learn more about The Fiadh Project
Read Peter Cairns' illustrated feature: "Monarch or Menace?"

Britain’s woodlands and grasslands were once shaped by vast herds of wild cattle — the now-extinct aurochs. But in a Dutch laboratory, scientists have brought these powerful herbivores back to life — in part at least.
Tauros cattle share 95% of their DNA with the aurochs and have been bred to restore the natural grazing processes long lost from Europe’s ecosystems. Now roaming in increasing numbers across the Continent, could the Tauros fulfil a similar role in the UK? And if not, what’s standing in the way?
Additional info
At the Edge is an independent media platform that takes a deep dive into our relationship with wild nature, exploring pathways to living well with wildlife.
Follow us on Instagram, or join me, Peter Cairns, on LinkedIn and Bluesky. And if you like what we do, please consider Buying Me A Coffee to support the production of future podcasts and other content.
This episode of At The Edge is produced in partnership with Adventurous Audio and is kindly supported by Ballintean Mountain Lodge.
Useful links
Meet the contributors from this episode on LinkedIn:
Grazelands Rewilding, Henry Dobson.
Learn more about the work of Grazelands Rewilding here.
Learn more about natural grazing here and here.
Learn more about Tauros cattle.
The availability of the excellent film 'Return of the aurochs' isn't clear, but you can contact the producers here. I have a copy myself, so let me know if you're keen to organise a screening and I'll try and help.

Wild boar are making a quiet comeback — not just in our landscapes, but in our conversations too.
Attempts to hold boar captive in farms have repeatedly failed and today, pockets of these prolific digging machines can be found across the south of England and several parts of Scotland.
Fans point to their ecological benefits – their rootling turns over the soil and their wallowing creates mini wetlands. They are to our woodlands what beavers are to our rivers.
But this disturbance of the ground is what many people find unsettling. Wild boar strike a nerve because they not only dig in fields and forests, but in gardens, parks, golf courses… even cemeteries.
And, it seems, they have a particular liking for bluebells.
Additional info
At the Edge is an independent media platform that takes a deep dive into our relationship with wild nature, exploring pathways to living well with wildlife.
Follow us on Instagram, or join me, Peter Cairns, on LinkedIn and Bluesky. And if you like what we do, please consider Buying Me A Coffee to support the production of future podcasts and other content.
This episode of At The Edge is produced in partnership with Adventurous Audio and is kindly supported by Ballintean Mountain Lodge.
Useful links
Meet the contributors on LinkedIn:
Alex Davies, Calum Brown, Chantal Lyons, Toryn Whitehead, and Pete Moore.
Learn more about Bunloit Estate.
Order Groundbreakers, the excellent book about boar by Chantal Lyons.
Read this interim policy brief on feral pigs in Scotland.
Find out more about NatureScot's position on wild boar/feral pigs.
Learn more about wild boar in England and view the Action Plan.