Britain has got a new Environment Secretary, Therese Coffey, who told farmers the other day that she wasn’t particularly enamoured with the long-standing idea of reintroducing lynx to the wilder bits of the countryside of Scotland, England and Wales.
The big cats were once native to these isles but since they and wolves were hunted to extinction in medieval times, officially, Britain has no true apex predator - foxes, otters, owls and eagles. No wonder the deer population is reportedly the highest it's been since Henry VIII’s reign.
But Therese Coffey’s doubts and the farmers’ objections make me smile. Because I know the countryside of Britain does already contain an apex predator - the puma.
