Lynx kitten Halloween fun

25/10/2016 in Highland Wildlife Park

The three lynx kittens at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park were treated to a spooktacular Halloween surprise on Tuesday, 25 October.

Keepers made a set of spooky paper-mâché Halloween enrichment for the kittens to play with, ahead of Halloween. The kittens which are one male and two females, were born in May and have grown quite a lot in the last five months, becoming extremely playful and boisterous.

Vickie Larkin, Head Carnivore Keeper at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park, said: “Halloween is always a great time for the keepers to get creative and have fun with the animals’ enrichment. Instead of using traditional pumpkins, we thought it would be exciting for the kittens to play with paper-mâché enrichment, which they can easily pounce on and tear into shreds, allowing them to exhibit natural behaviours.”

RZSS Highland Wildlife Park's lynx are part of the European Zoo Association's coordinated breeding programme. Although the species is not currently endangered, it had become locally extinct in many areas across Europe, resulting in some sub-populations being considered as endangered or even critically endangered. The lynx was formerly native to the UK until possibly as late as the Middle Ages.

Loss of habitat, reduced prey availability and hunting are the biggest threats to wild lynx populations. There have been a number of successful lynx reintroduction projects within Europe, including in Switzerland and France. RZSS is part of the National Species Reintroduction Forum’s Lynx Working Group which ensures that lynx reintroduction proposals are assessed in a fair, balanced and evidence-based fashion. The Northern lynx is one of a number of subspecies of Eurasian lynx.

All photos by Keith Collins

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