Vimperk, South Bohemia, Aug 9 (CTK) – Sixty to 80 lynxes live along the Czech-Bavarian-Austrian border according to experts who say that the number has not been changing for a long time, but the population is isolated, which prevents further spread of the animal, Jan Dvorak told CTK on Tuesday.
Dvorak, spokesman for the Sumava National Park (NPS) Administration, informed CTK of the results of a joint project of the three countries called Trans-Lynx conducted in 2013-15.
The experts’ cooperation made it possible to count lynxes which live on the territory of two or three countries.
“An adult male occupies a territory of about 350 to 450 square kilometres, a female a territory of 120 to 150 square kilometres. The density of population ranges between one to 1.6 lynxes per 100 square kilometres,” Elisa Belotti, a zoologist of the NPS Administration, said.
The Sumava and Bavarian Forest national parks have cooperated in the Euroasian lynx research since the 1990s. Since 2009, they have used blanket photo monitoring.
“In the past decade, lynxes have disappeared from some areas on the fringes of the parks. In addition to being small, the Czech-Bavarian-Austrian lynx population is relatively isolated, which markedly increases its being threatened with extinction. To survive, a population needs to be able to spread, which is not happening at present,” Belotti said.
She said the lynxes are doing well in the national parks. “Every year, we registered reproduction. In addition, our joint photo monitoring shows that the lynxes live longer there than individuals monitored within the Trans-Lynx project outside the national parks,” she said.
However, the territory of the national parks is not sufficient to safeguard the whole lynx population, Belotti said.
“It is necessary to secure good conditions for their survival outside protected territories as well. This mainly requires protection from poachers and road transport,” she added.
