Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves, and Bears, in Review

Madelaine Stannard reviews Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves, and Bears, in conversation with author Jonny Hanson.

Living with Lynx by Jonny Hanson does not make for fluffy reading. Instead, this is a vulnerable, gritty read, packed with a thought-provoking cocktail of history, psychology, ecology, and all the fundamental in-betweens of contemporary conservation.

Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves, and Bears by author Jonny Hanson, available for order at Pelagic Publishing.

In Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves, and Bears, we’re transported on a journey through time - past, present, and future - to explore some of conservation’s most pressing questions: what is ‘wild’, where does it belong, and who exactly should pay the costs of bringing it back? Drawing on more than 50 interviews, with a cast of diverse characters from his travels across seven countries, and Hanson’s own rich history of farming, entrepreneurship, and carnivore conservation, it simply brims with debate. 

Can large carnivores be reconciled with this inextricable matrix of farmed land, and at what cost? Can we ever reconcile them with our own biases, values, and needs? These are the raw, honest questions Hanson poses, with the refreshing transparency that not all can yet be answered.

Before crossing paths with Hanson, I admit I had a slightly romanticised, rose-tinted experience of rewilding. It’s one thing to guess how you might feel if asked to live alongside a reintroduced predator, given there are potential ecological and economic benefits if appropriately governed.

But it’s another entirely to live it, this spectrum of coexistence where no one knows exactly what to expect. When facing down the complex and often harsh realities of coexistence across Europe and North America (as many of Hanson’s interviewees do), I was forced to confront some of my own expectations of myself. What would I do? And how would I really feel? 

In the book’s chapters analysing a toolkit of responses for coexistence, including everything from force to finance, the implications on hard-pressed rural communities are investigated. Hanson’s own experience of establishing Jubilee Farm, Northern Ireland’s first community-owned farm, has left him finetuned to difficulties currently faced by many agricultural families and enterprises. Throw in an unfamiliar predator, humanity’s shared evolutionary experience with carnivores, and we are set for something explosive if rural communities are not at the forefront of decisions made about reintroduced species.

Yet, the rewilding movement marches on, led by several organisations currently championing the return of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) to parts of Scotland and northern England. With critical discourse and often hostile sentiment building in some groups, rewilding has become a ‘dirty’ word in several communities.

Jonny is an environmental social scientist, award-winning social entrepreneur, snow leopard conservationist, and former community farmer. Aspects of his research focus on whether farming could and should reconcile with rewilding, in particular large carnivore reintroductions. Image Credit: Jonny Hanson.

“It’s a tale as old as time that we compete with these species for resources and we’ve been doing that since we left Africa or evolved there a hundred thousand years ago. This is just the latest chapter in a very old story,” Hanson tells me over a grainy Zoom call. “Compromise between different visions, values, and approaches is essential. It’s about finding the most socially appropriate and ecologically appropriate strategy that’s at the intersection of all those.”

After all, as Hanson emphasises throughout Living with Lynx, it’s normal to be conflicted. Internal Family Systems, a psychotherapy model positing multiple - and perhaps competing - parts of the self, explains how we can hold contrasting views on one subject all within ourselves, including on rewilding. “It’s okay not to choose,” Hanson says, “to be somewhere in between in this age of polarised dichotomies where you’re for or against.” In fact, acknowledging both the benefits and very real challenges can likely make us both better conservationists, and even people. 

Likewise, Living with Lynx bravely confronts the possibility that a carnivore reintroduction to the British Isles, whether lynx or wolves, could be premature and presumptuous. Cautiously analytical, it’s a considerate exploration of what could go right, but what could equally go wrong. It’s this pragmatism which makes for a thought-provoking read on the rewilding topic which is rife with misinformation and hostility the world over.

In Oostvaardersplassen, the Netherlands, Hanson and his research assistant explored the so-called Dutch Serengeti, where thousands of Heck cattle, Konik ponies, and red deer shape the terrestrial landscape. In Graubűnden, Switzerland, he met with Sarah Zippert, Alpine farmer, and Stefan Geismann, livestock protection technical adviser, and heard firsthand how devastating livestock depredation by wolves can be. 

Yet, in Montana’s Tom Miner Basin, Hanson witnessed the opportunities and enterprise created by grizzly bear and wildlife tourism. A visit to Anderson Ranch proved especially valuable. Here, with multigenerational rancher Malou Anderson and range rider Ellery Vincent, he learned how an association of ranches provides practical advice and financial assistance to those dealing with wildlife conflict.

Carnivore coexistence across the world is not a monolith. Each experience is valid and should be heard. Each experience is nuanced, with a wealth of benefits and complications. At the very least, Hanson got some great panoramic views. “I just loved the USA’s Mountain West, it’s really wonderful,” he smiles. “Just the size of the landscapes.” 

Jonny in the field during research for Living with Lynx in Lander, Wyoming. Image Credit: Jaden Bales.

Across the world, new strategies and toolkits are continuously developed to mitigate human-wildlife and carnivore-livestock conflict. Living with Lynx provides an essential first step into understanding some of these tools, underpinned by governance, which could make all the difference.

It’s uncertain how a carnivore reintroduction to the British Isles would play out. Coexistence is a journey towards a moving target after all. But having honest, and tricky, conversations as Hanson sets out to do, is the most important factor in any reintroduction story. His own love and respect for wild carnivores - in particular big cats - alongside his farming background places him firmly in the middle of the issue. 

In his recent documentary film, Snow Leopard Trail, Hanson explores the approaches of Nepali conservationists working to mitigate livestock conflict with snow leopards in the Annapurna Conservation Area. Facilitating conversations with local people, and upending traditional Western ideals, is a cornerstone of equitable coexistence.  But, can practices in the Himalaya ever be applied to carnivore reintroductions on our own doorstep? 

“That’s one of the things I learned, that especially if it becomes adversarial you need people and institutions in the middle who are trusted by reintroducers and the farmers, and can broker conversations,” Hanson concludes.“There may not be nirvana achieved in between, but it’s still better to have someone who can facilitate those conversations.” 

About the Authors:

Jonny is an environmental social scientist, award-winning social entrepreneur, snow leopard conservationist and former community farmer. Currently a research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast with ARK, he is also Founder of Jubilee Community Benefit Society, an Affiliate of the Snow Leopard Conservancy, and owner of nature edutainment start-up, Jonny Hanson Ventures. Jonny can be found at the following links:

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Madelaine Stannard is a BSc Zoologist and MSc Science Communication graduate from the University of Sheffield. As former Managing Editor of Wild Magazine, and passionate about science journalism and public communication, she now works as a Guide at a BIAZA-accredited aquarium. Madelaine can be found on LinkedIn.