Field activities in Romania

Posted - Feb 14, 2022


Continuing the work started in September, the Romanian LIFE Lynx team has activated the box traps, waiting now for the next lynx individual to be captured. While checking the photos from the cameras used to monitor the box traps, the team members were happy to find out that the lynxes were marking and entering the traps, before the activation.

A lynx crossing the box trap. Photo: ACDB

With good snow conditions in the last weeks, snow-tracking was possible and the team was able to collect valuable urine and scat samples, that will further be genetically analyzed.

Collecting a urine sample. Photo: Andrei Dinu, LIFE Lynx

We are currently monitoring the Lepsa study area and in these weeks we will check all the camera. As the lynx mating season is knocking on the doors and the breeding dispersal activity is increasing, we get more photos this othervise very elusive feline.

Also some of our former team members joined us in the field. In November we exchaned ideas with  Andrea Corradini PhD, who worked for ACDB in the past, and Teresa Oliveira, a PhD student from the University of Ljubljana, who is addressing the topic of Eurasian lynx feeding ecology in her doctoral thesis. It was a great chance to discuss also what type of data can be collected from checking the lynx kill sites, a more sporadic field activity we are doing.

Analyzing the predation area. Photo: Andrea Corradini