From BBC
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BBC environment correspondent
Reporting fromKarlsruhe, Germany
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As the door of its crate opens, the lynx sniffs the air, checks the coast is clear and cautiously takes its first steps toward freedom in Germany’s Black Forest.
A lynx born in a zoo in Cornwall could become the first UK zoo-born cat to be successfully released into the wild.
Animals born and raised in zoos are rarely considered for release because they either don’t have the survival skills or have become too used to human interaction.
But a shortage of female lynxes in the European breeding programme led to the unusual request being made for the cat from Newquay Zoo.
It has been moved to Germany where it will spend the next few months being monitored in an enclosure to see if it’s up to the challenge.
This week the BBC watched on as, with the help of some judicious prodding with a broom, the Newquay lynx was loaded onto a truck headed for southwestern Germany.
Two days later we were in Germany as it was cajoled into a 1,200-sq-metre enclosure. John Meek from Newquay Zoo was also on hand to see the lynx gingerly stroll out into its new home.
“I’m a big boy but I had a few tears in my eyes,” he said. ” Nowadays, zoos are not here to keep animals in cages. They’re there for conservation. And this is it, conservation in action.”
Thousands of lynx already roam wild in European forests but efforts are being made to introduce new cats
