engleski

Mortality in the Eurasian lynx population in Croatia

The combination of intensive persecution, habitat loss and prey deficiency led to the extinction of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Dinaric Mountains at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1973, Slovenian hunters organized the reintroduction of six animals from Slovakia into Slovenia in order to revive lynx trophy hunting. The newly established popula- tion encountered a favorable habitat and abundant prey, so the population rapidly expanded and in 1974 lynx had already appeared in Croatia. Since the end of the 20th century the reintroduced population has been decreasing, leading us to investigate the principal causes of mortality. Data on mortality of the lynx population in Croatia were collected through a national monitoring program. After reintroduction, the first recorded lynx shooting in Croatia occu- rred in 1978, and from that year until 2013, 232 deaths were recorded. The vast majority of deaths were human-related (92.7%), with only 2.1% not human-related ; the cause of the remaining 5.2% of deaths was undetermined. A total of 171 deaths (73.7%) were due to shooting, 17 (7.3%) due to road traffic, 10 (4.2%) due to trapping, four (1.7%) due to trains, two to poisoning and one to a land mine. Another 10 animals (4.2%) were killed in various ways after a close encounter with humans. Between 1978 and 1998, when the lynx was le- gally protected in Croatia, 10 deaths due to poaching were recorded, accounting for 5% of all deaths in that period. During 1999-2013, 18 poaching deaths occurred, accounting for 60% of all deaths in that period. These findings suggest that the synergy of human-induced mortality, reduction in genetic diversity and possibly prey deficiency may be the principal factors behind the decline in the reintroduced lynx population in Croatia since the end of the 20th century. While these results provide one of the few national-level assessments of mortality in a reintroduced carnivore population the data should be interpreted with caution. Overall lynx mortality is likely to have been higher due to unreported or unobserved de- aths. Deaths due to poaching are likely underestimated due to difficulties in detection, as are natural deaths, such as those due to infectious disease and kitten mortality.

lynx

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