This column appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.

Though once upon a time lynx roamed this land, no mammalian apex predator, apart from the ubiquitous Homo sapiens, now remains. Aside from domestic moggies, the largest cat we have in Scotland is the recently reintroduced, diminutive, 5kg Scottish wildcat.

We don’t know how or why the lynx disappeared, but we do know that a skull of the species found in a Sutherland cave has been radiocarbon dated to the third century AD, and that bones from sites across Britain reveal the species was present during the Holocene.

India, where Dr Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi grew up, has 15 cat species, including lynx, tiger and snow leopard.

The cat to which he has dedicated over 20 years of his life, as well as a transporting and engrossing book, titled The Ghost of the Mountains, is the snow leopard, a dweller of high places with giant snowshoe-like paws and camouflage that makes it melt into the rocks of the Himalayas.

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When he refers to the presence of larger cats within these landscapes as “enchantment”, I think: “That’s it – a missing thing.”

“Cats,” he says, “are among the most enchanting wildlife that we have. You don’t actually have to see one to experience the magic of them being there. Just knowing that snow leopards are there can completely change the experience. I think that’s what lynx can do to the Scottish Highlands, just know that they are there.”

“What this means in Scotland is that if the lynx are coming back, the........

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