2021 is an amazing lynx-capturing year for our project. After three lynx, already captured for translocation, both teams from Romanian and Slovakian have been successful again in the beginning of March. First, the team in Romania captured another male lynx, than just a few days later Slovakian team announced that they got a female lynx. All together we have five lynx (three males and two females) captured for translocation to Gorenjska (Slovenia).
Male lynx is about two years old, weighs about 19 kg and is in good health condition. He was captured in the area of State managed hunting ground in Neamt County, Tarcău Mts, managed by RNP Romsilva. This was the first lynx captured in Tarcău since the beginning of the project. The hunter in charge of protecting this area, suggested two trapping locations last season, and those locations were monitored via camera traps. After a four-month monitoring of the area, we collected 14 independent lynx videos and confirmed at least two lynxes that are frequently using the paths to move in their territories, showling that they were indeed good trapping locations.
Male lynx captured in Romania. Photo: Radu Sandu, ACDB
On the night between March 10 and 11, 2021, the Slovak LIFE Lynx team in cooperation with the Forests of the Slovak Republic Lesy SR (Rimavská Sobota forest enterprise), the State Nature Conservation (Muránska planina National Park administration) and the Poľana hunting ground, managed to capture an adult, three to four years old female lynx. The lynx was medically examined and transported to the quarantine at the Bojnice National Zoo with no complications. After completing the quarantine, she will be translocated together with the adult male to Gorenjska region, Slovenia.
First female lynx captured in Slovakia in 2021. Photo: Jakub Kubala, LIFE Lynx