Czech wilderness is home to about eighty lynx. Will they persist?
Camera traps installed by the NGO Friends of the Earth Czech Republic captured unique images of lynx mating ritual.
28.4.2016, Friends of the Earth Czech Republic (Hnutí DUHA) and local organization Olomouc
The Bohemian Forest, Beskydy, Javorníky and Novohradské Mountains, newly also Jeseníky and Jizera Mountains - these are just some of the areas which became the permanent or temporary home of our largest secretive cat - the Eurasian lynx. The latest estimates indicate that about eighty lynx inhabit the territory of the Czech Republic.
Camera traps installed by the Lynx Patrols of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic have recently produced unique images of lynx mating behaviour providing a further proof that our landscape offers suitable habitats for their permanent presence. Monitoring of lynx and other large carnivores is carried out with the help of volunteers taking part in the so-called Lynx and Wolf Patrols organized by Friends of the Earth Czech Republic (Hnutí DUHA). During the last winter alone, almost six hundred volunteers went to the field.
Camera traps enable us to get an insight into the private moments in lives of wild animals without disturbing human presence [1]. An automatic camera of Friends of the Earth installed in the Bohemian Forest foothills recorded in the early spring a female lynx named Kristýna followed by a male called Fridrich. Both animals have been monitored by conservationists for several months. Although the camera did not capture the act of mating, it is obvious what occupies the lynx at this time of the year. Here is the recording of the lynx rendezvous:
A camera trap installed by the Lynx Patrols of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic (Hnutí DUHA) recorded a female lynx named Kristýna followed by a male called Fridrich – both have been monitored by our volunteers since last year.
How will the exciting moment end?
We may have to wait for the solution till the beginning of summer when the female lynx give birth typically to two cubs.
Let’s hope the Bohemian Forest lynx will thrive in our wilderness!
Friends of the Earth obtained and installed dozens of camera traps thanks to the grants from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway [2]. They allow monitoring of wolves, lynx, bears and wildcats in the Bohemian Forest and its foothills, and the mountain ranges of Beskydy, Javorníky, Jeseníky, Krkonoše, Jizera, Krušné and Doupovské Mountains, as well as the Broumov and Kokořín regions. Monitoring with the use of camera traps, winter tracking and analysis of collected data provide a comprehensive picture of the permanent presence and expansion of the carnivores in our environment.
Where do the lynx live in the Czech Republic?
- The Bohemian Forest and its foothills: Our largest population is found here. The core area consists of the Šumava National Park and the Bavarian Forest National Park; from here the young lynx spread into the connecting parts – Novohradské Mountains, Boletice, Upper Palatine Forest and Blanský Forest. According to the results of the Trans-Lynx project, which involved monitoring the occurrence of the Eurasian lynx in the south-west Bohemia over several years, the Czech-Bavarian-Austrian lynx population comprises of about 65 adult animals. The good news is that the lynx are also permanently present and reproducing outside of the core area of the national parks.
- Beskydy Protected Landscape Area: The lynx are doing well also on the Czech-Slovak border. There are about ten of them and every year the volunteer Wolf Patrols organized by the local organization of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic in Olomouc provide information about their reproduction [3].
- Jizera and Krkonoše Mountains: Camera trap images confirmed at the beginning of this year the presence of lynx also in the Jizera Mountains. Even in the Krkonoše Mountains, busy with tourists, the zoologists of the Administration of the Krkonoše Mountains National Park still record the occurrence of this carnivore; despite the fact that none of the 25 camera traps installed in the Krkonoše last winter provided a picture of lynx.
- Jeseníky Mountains: During the last winter season, the presence of lynx was also confirmed in the Nízký Jeseník region. Sadly, the efforts to record this carnivore in the Jeseníky Protected Landscape Area – which used to have a stable lynx population – were not successful. The absence of lynx in this area is probably resulting from illegal hunting, isolation of the territory from other populations of large carnivores and the increasing fragmentation of the landscape.
Josefa Volfová, Lynx Patrols coordinator of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic, comments:
“The good news is, that the lynx in the Czech Republic are doing well outside of the most strictly protected parts of nature inside the national parks. Also in other parts of our country, they find islands of wilderness providing them peace for breeding, raising the cubs and resting. The permanent presence of lynx in our landscape depends solely on the human attitude towards them; our will to share the common space.”
Contacts:
Josefa Volfová, the Lynx Patrols coordinator, josefa.volfova@hnutiduha.cz,
Jan Piňos, media and communications, jan.pinos@hnutiduha.cz
Notes:
[1] What can be discovered by a camera trap describes the following article: http://www.selmy.cz/clanky/fotopast-skryta-sonda-do-zivota-divokych-zvirat/
[2] Lynx and Wolf Patrols are organized within the framework of the large carnivores protection courses funded as part of the project “Increasing public awareness for an active protection of biodiversity in the Czech Republic”, which is supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway and co-funded by the EEA Funds 2009-2014, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Patagonia Environmental Fund and the Ministry of Interior. For more information about the project, look here. Friends of the Earth Czech Republic (local organization Olomouc) carries out the monitoring of large carnivores thanks to the grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway as part of the project “Monitoring of important European carnivore species in selected localities within the Natura 2000 network”. Find more about the project here.
[3] More on http://www.selmy.cz/clanky/z-letosnich-rysich-doupat/ and http://www.selmy.cz/tiskove-zpravy/mapovani-velkych-selem-v-beskydech-pocty-zvirat-stagnuji/
Translation from CZ press release: Martina Dušková
