In the last few months, we’ve been closely monitoring Teja’s and Mala’s activity. Till the end of April they were moving together all the time. Things started to change at the beginning of May when something triggered Mala’s dispersion. We believe that the reason for dispersion was Teja’s parturition since she’s been seen highly pregnant at the end of April. According to the timing of the telemetry data of Goru and Teja they have spent some time together in February, so we expected the delivery around the beginning of May. Unfortunately, Teja’s collar stopped working in mid-February, so we can’t confirm this. We hope to get some photos from the camera traps that we will set in the next lynx monitoring season in Slovenia.
Mala’s path to independence. Photo: Jaka Črtalič, LIFE Lynx
On May 1, Mala left her mother’s Home range and dispersed north. We found her first own prey on May 9, when she caught an adult roe deer. She is very successful at hunting as she already caught six roe deer. From May 1 until July 1, when her collar sent the last locations, Mala was roaming outside Teja’s territory all the time, except for one two-day trip back into her mother’s territory. It seems that the battery in Mala’s collar has drained out, however, we will try to recapture her or at least obtain some other signs of her presence (photos, genetic samples, …) in the future.
Mala’s first photo capture on November 29, 2019 (left), Mala’s photo capture on March 3, 2020 (middle) and Mala’s photo capture on April 20, 2020 (right). Photo: Franc Kljun and Jaka Črtalič, LIFE Lynx