In December 2017 team from Forestry Department of Biotechnical Faculty in Ljubljana spent two days snow-tracking lynx on Snežnik plateau in Southern Slovenia. We were lucky enough to find tracks of a female lynx with two kittens. This female is one of the last in Slovenia that is still reproducing successfully. We followed them for several kilometers through the wild Dinaric forests in the shadow of Mount Snežnik and collected several non-invasive genetic samples from their hair and urine in the snow. Such genetic samples will provide us with base-line information on the genetic diversity, which we hope to improve by future translocations of unrelated lynx from the Carpathian population. Understanding current distribution of the remnant lynx in Slovenia and Croatia will also help us to choose best locations to release new lynx in the next years.
Snežnik mountains Photo: Miha Krofel
A spot on the rock was marked by lynx. Photo: Miha Krofel