Lynx Petra has four kittens!

Posted - Aug 4, 2021


Since the collaring of the resident female lynx Petra from Kočevsko, the project team has been closely following her movements. From camera-trap videos recorded in late spring, we noticed that she could be pregnant. Our assumptions were later confirmed in the field, when we found four kittens during the summer. Last year, Petra managed to raise one kitten to independence, which left her at the end of March. This year she gave birth to four kittens, which is an exceptional number for a Eurasian lynx! We assume that the father of the kittens is the male from upper Kolpa valley as he was sharing a kill with Petra during the mating season. To confirm this, we need to wait for results of genetic analyses of the hair samples we collected from the kittens.

In this video, you can see Petra nursing and moving her kittens to a new den site. During the denning period, females move their kittens quite often to reduce the smell, which protects them from potential predators. Petra seems to be a good and caring mother that knows how to handle the kittens. However, in the nature, not all kittens make it to adulthood (usually the mortality in the first year is around 50%), so we are looking forward to the new season of camera trapping to see how many kittens will survive.