European Natura 2000 Day relates to May 21 1992 when both EU Habitats Directive and LIFE programme were approved. This Directive together with the Birds Directive (adopted in 1979) became a base of EU Natura 2000 Network of protected areas. All three large carnivores, bear, wolf, and lynx are protected within the scope of Natura 2000. Even before the regulation of carnivore protection was enforced, some hunters realized that...
Read More
In times of COVID19, the “Progetto Lince Italia” organized a lynx-art contest. Anyone enthusiastic about dedicating their time to producing artwork about the lynx were invited to participate. Children, retirees, amateur, and professional painters attended the contest. The goal of the contest is to bring people through art to the beauty of nature and one of its most beautiful animals in our forests, the lynx. The response was...
Read More
A year ago, we released the first lynx from Carpathian Mountains to Risnjak National Park in Croatia in order to save the Dinaric population from extinction. In the first few weeks after the release, this lynx named Doru, crossed the Croatian-Slovenian border and settled in Slovenia near Postojna. We recorded his movement through GPS/GSM data from his collar, but he was also occasionally recorded on photo traps. Since January 2020, we...
Read More
A new lynx arrived from Romania to Slovenia today. He is a young male, a “teenager”. Who could be better suited to naming this lynx, if not the children and teenagers who live in the area where the lynx will be released? The project team asked school children from Sodražica to give their suggestions for the name. At the end of the winter we created a programme »Young Guardians of Lynx« for Sodražica Primary School together with Mojca...
Read More
The Balkan lynx belong to the critically endangered population of Eurasian lynx, which is today limited to the region of southern Balkans with a stronghold in the western part of Macedonia (Mavrovo National Park). In the past there were many speculations about the ecology of this subspecies and several authors assumed that it may differ from other populations of Eurasian lynx in Europe. For example, it was suggested that Balkan lynx...
Read More
After Catalin came very close to Nature Park Učka in Istria (Croatia), he turned northeast, crossed Gorski Kotar, and then returned to Slovenia. On the map below, we can see that he first headed towards Kočevsko, but then turned north again and continued towards the direction of Ljubljana. He made a few stops on the way and in one of them, he proved that his hunting skills are still very good, as we found the remains of his prey, a...
Read More
On April 22, we celebrate Earth Day. On an eve before this day, a documentary film Back from the Brink will be broadcasted on Slovenian national television RTV. The movie is a common project of eight European national televisions from Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Swiss, Italy, Netherlands, Romania and Slovenia. The film focuses on changes in the environment. There are individuals and organizations in Europe, trying to make a difference...
Read More
We have conducted a pre-reinforcement survey of the genetic and demographic status of residual lynx in Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. With systematic camera trapping at more than 300 camera trapping sites and with non-invasive genetic sampling via snow-tracking and hair trapping, we obtained good quality data of lynx distribution and minimum population size in Northern Dinarics and the SE Alps. We identified 71 adult lynxes, including...
Read More
A glimpse of the wildlife biologist’s life condensed in an extended weekend in the beautiful Lika Region. Together with two women in the wildlife part of the Croatian team of the LIFE Lynx project – Ivana Selanec and Ira Topličanec, I spent some time last December. This experience reminded me of the requirements and of the privileges of this type of job: being ready to travel, having a deep connection with the territory,...
Read More
Training is essential even under the coronavirus quarantine. ACDB team members do it like this.
Read More
After the release on 31th of March in Snežnik forests, lynx Catalin went south towards the Slovenian and Croatian border. He went very close to the hilltop named same as he is, Katalin. Coincidence? In the area marked with orange on the map, there is a possibility that he met with a collared female lynx Martina. Martina is orphan lynx that was captured by the Croatian team in November 2019 near Ogulin. She was rehabilitated and...
Read More