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The International Day of the Lynx - the event was launched as part of the 3Lynx project - was celebrated this year with the online premiere of the documentary series "Hunter Stories". This film series, produced by project partners of LIFE Lynx, interviews among others, the Slovakian hunter Štéfan Zatroch and the painter and Czech zoologist Ludvik Kunc about theirs efforts to protect and reintroduce Eurasian lynxes. These efforts started in the 1970s from the former Czechoslovakia with wild catches and provided resettlement projects throughout western and south-eastern Europe with individuals to support the population or to resettle after they were eradicated in the original distribution area.

The two worked closely together for more than 20 years as a well-tested team to support and help with the capture of lynx populations in Europe with wild catches. With LIFE Lynx, Central Europe INTERREG 3Lynx and projects with similar objectives in the future, we are continuing their work and efforts to protect Europe's largest cat species from extinction and to protect it long-term and sustainably.

You can see one of the "Hunter Stories" on Youtube, in English and Slovenian with German subtitles.

(Web editor, 11 June 2020)

The main threats to the survival of the Eurasian lynx  (Lynx lynx) are illegal killing (due to lack of acceptance by key stakeholders) and habitat fragmentation, which hinders migration.

In addition, unharmonised (national) monitoring and management traditions hamper a coordinated approach. The challenge is to integrate lynx monitoring, conservation and management of conflicts between stakeholders (leading to illegal killing), carried out and coordinated by responsible authorities and NGOs, towards a common strategy on transnational population level.

The main objectives of the project are:

a) to improve lynx conservation capacities by responsible stakeholders through experience, data and tool sharing;

b) to jointly analyse gained data at both population and transnational levels;

c) to implement a harmonised lynx monitoring on population level, also as an instrument to achieve active involvement of key stakeholders, namely hunters and foresters, into lynx conservation issues (aimed to improve acceptance);

d) to increase problem awareness among other stakeholder groups and connect the activities to macroregional/multinational strategies. The main outputs will be a transnational strategy affecting three lynx populations, endorsed by MoUs, an integrated toolbox and a sound acknowledgement of the approach by EUSALP, EUSDR, and the Alpine and Carpathian Conventions.

The project consortium is led by the czech  Ministry of Environment  and has partners from five Central European countries.

Project duration:  1 July 2017 - 30 June 2020

Project publications

Go to the official project website