For achieving our main project goal – rescuing the Dinaric-SE Alpine lynx population from extinction, we have already translocated seven lynxes from the Carpathians to the Dinarics in the years 2019-2020, where five animals came from Romania and two from Slovakia. Out of those seven animals, we are still monitoring five, as two collars stopped working. Here we present the status of the translocated lynxes we monitored during this mating season (February-March).
Map of Goru’s movement during the mating season 2021.
GORU
After his release in May 2019 in Loški potok, Goru established his territory in Mala Gora area in the Kočevje region. During 2020 mating season, he went to southeast Croatia where presence of local females were confirmed. This mating season (2021), he also went on an excursion. This time his way led towards Snežnik and then to Gorski Kotar in Croatia. During his trip, his longest stop was near Babno Polje, which means that most likely also a female was there. After one month of exploring, Goru returned to his home range in Mala Gora.
Map of Alojzije’s movement during the mating season 2021.
ALOJZIJE
Lynx Alojzije was released in March 2020 in NP Paklenica, Croatia. He settled on southern part of the Velebit Mt. in the area of Sveti Rok where we are still monitoring him. Alojzije was recorded in three events on camera traps in 2020, on the same site where another lynx of unknown sex was recorded. This mating season Alojzije did not show any change in movement in search for females. Currently, we are aware of one resident female that was photographed inside his territory. She was recorded with two cubs from last year so this year we will need to put more effort into collecting DNA samples.
Map of Catalin’s movement during the mating season 2021.
CATALIN
Catalin was released in Slovenia in March 2020. He established his territory in the area that covers Menišija, Logatec plateau, Rakitna and some parts of Mokrc. In 2020 we recorded Catalin on six occasions with camera traps when feeding on kill sites, among which at least two were shared with this probable female. This mating season (2021), he went south towards Draga. However, his trip did not last long, as he returned to his home range in three days.
Map of Boris’ movement since the release.
BORIS
Boris was released in May 2020 in Loški Potok, Slovenia. After the release, he headed south and crossed the border with Croatia, where he stayed for some time in the area of Gorski Kotar in the vicinity of Gerovo. Then he went south and it looks like he established a territory in Ogulin and Modruš area. In the recent mating season, he did not make any excursions outside his home range.
Map of Maks’ movement since the release.
MAKS
Maks was the last lynx released into nature in 2020. He comes from Slovakia and was released from a quarantine enclosure in the Snežnik forests in Slovenia. Shortly after his release, he appeared to have established territory in the Javorniki area (Slovenia) in the same area that was previously occupied by Doru. After some time, he left the area and went to Menišija, where it looked like he established the territory. He shared this area with another translocated lynx Catalin and at least one resident female lynx. After a couple of months, he started his journey to the Alps. First it looked like Maks will stay there but after two months and half he came back to Menišija.
Until now, we genetically proved two lynx litters whose parents are a local Slovenian female Teja and translocated lynx Goru: last year we captured one kitten named Mala (2019 offspring) and Teja gave birth to three kittens (2020 offspring). One of them, Niko was also captured and is wearing a telemetry collar for monitoring his movements. Present mating season is coming to its final stage and we hope to identify more mixed Carpathian-Dinaric offspring this year.