JUST as Natural England is considering the application to release lynx into Kielder Forest, it has been reported the one that escaped from a Welsh zoo last week has killed seven sheep in a single attack.

Of the same Eurasian species Lynx UK Trust proposes releasing in the North Tyne, Lilleth the lynx has evaded recapture by dozens of police officers, a heat-seeking helicopter and zookeepers armed with dart guns since she leaped over an electric fence at Borth Zoo, near Aberystwyth.

Now the National Sheep Association says the fugitive has taken out seven sheep on a nearby farm – partly eating two, but apparently killing the other five out of instinct.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said: “Lynx UK Trust continues to assure us that lynx, on average, will take just 0.4 sheep annually, a fact which is simply unbelievable given the damage just one has inflicted after several days of roaming free.

“This incident also backs up what we are hearing from a number of sheep farmers in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, who tell us of high losses they’ve experienced from individual lynx that develop the behavioral characteristic of an opportunistic hunter.”

However Lynx UK’s chief scientific adviser, Paul O’Donoghue, said the events of the past week were not representative of wild lynx.

“We had this debate the last time one escaped – what is an animal that has been kept in a cage and never seen a roe deer, let out into an environment with hardly any trees and no deer anyway, going to do?

“It’s in a totally unsuitable environment for a lynx and as a captive animal, its behaviour does not provide a relevant comparison.

“People aren’t stupid, they understand that, but if the NSA chooses to use this as an opportunity, so be it.”

Hexham's MP, Guy Opperman, said: "I am greatly concerned at the news.

"The National Sheep Association has spoken out again in opposition to the release of lynx in Kielder Forest and this news adds weight to the concerns of so many farmers and residents in the Kielder area who have contacted me to express their opposition.

"There is no place for Lynx in Kielder."