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Lynx population in the Dinaric Mountains and the south-eastern Alps and the LIFE Lynx project

Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) was extirpated from the Northern Dinaric Mountains and South- Eastern Alps in the beginning of 20th century. However, in 1973 foresters and hunters in Slovenia reintroduced six (some of them closely-related) lynx from Slovakia to the Northern Dinaric Mountains. The reintro-duction was initially successful and the population and range of lynx increased and spread south to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) but remained isolated. The expansion towards the north was slower ; nevertheless lynx presence was documented in Italy and Austria during the 1980s. Since 1978 lynx were legally hunted in Slovenia, Croatia, and BIH. During the 1990s, lynx population size started decreasing and the range expansion stopped. Legal hunting declined and stopped by the ear-ly 2000s, but the population continued to decline. Genetic analyses revealed that the population was highly inbred and that the effective population size has dramatically decreased after the 1990s. There were all indications that without integration of new individuals, the population would collapse. In 2017, we started with the LIFE lynx project with the main aim to prevent the extinction of the Dinaric and South-Eastern Alps lynx population. The main goal of the project is to integrate fourteen lynx from the Carpathian lynx population of Romania and Slovakia and reinforce the Dinaric-SE Alpine population. This reinforcement is the first step to secure the existence of the population, while en-suring long-term viability will require connecting the Dinaric and South- Eastern Alps population with other lynx populations in Europe.

lynx, Dinaric, Alpine

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