Rewilding: should we bring the lynx back to Britain?

Reintroducing the big cats could control deer numbers and enrich ecosystems but farmers and the public need reassurance, say experts

The maverick rewilder Derek Gow is wearing an extremely small pair of coral pink shorts as he introduces his three new Eurasian lynxes. He looks like Tiger King's Joe Exotic on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

The shy new arrivals are joining a menagerie of animals at his rewilding project in Devon. They are in a large pen with a four-metre-high fence but Gow, like a growing number of conservationists, wants to see lynxes prowling freely in the countryside.