Staten ved Direktoratet for Naturforvaltning og Miljøverndepartementet har godkjent at det skytes 51 gauper under jakten i februar / april 2005. Dette er rundt 20% av et offisielt anslått antall på ~250 dyr på landsbasis. Anslaget er svært usikkert. Det faktiske antallet gauper i Norge er i realiteten ukjent. Forskning tyder på at om den naturlige gaupebestanden i et område redusereres med rundt 20%, kan det medføre risiko for at gaupa dør ut i nevnte område.

The Government of Norway (Directory for Wildlife Resources and Ministry of the Environment) has approved of hunting down and killing 51 individuals of the Eurasian Lynx in February / April 2005. This is about 20% of an official estimated total number of ~250 animals in the whole country. The estimate is most uncertain. In reality the present actual number of lynxes in Norway is unknown. Scientific research indicates that if the natural population of lynxes in an area is reduced by about 20%, the result may be that the lynx becomes extinct in this area.

Skyddsjakt på rovdjur i renbetesområdet är en tillfällig nödlösning som kan accepteras enbart då förlusterna för rennäringen lokalt blir mycket stora. För övrigt måste rennäringen kompenseras genom det ersättningssystem som politkerna beslutat om men som tyvärr fått för lite resurser för att fungera som tänkt. ...Det är oacceptabelt att skjuta nära 100 lodjur, artens långsiktiga överlevnad är inte säkrad och högst 40 djur bör få skjutas.

The Swedish government has authorized the hunting and killing of as much as 50% of existing lynx and wolverine populations whose habitat lies within grazing areas of reindeer herds. Reindeer keeping is a modern, high tech industry where herding is conducted across open ranges with terrain motorcycles and helicopters, and herds are transported between summer and winter feeding grounds by freight trucks.

The Lynx Family: Felidae The study of fossils and animal history tells us that the handsome lynx was distributed in latest Pleistocene (or Ice Age) times all over the forests of the northern world, from Britain and Ireland in the west of Europe to Newfoundland in eastern North America. It was contemporary with Stone Age man in Britain and Ireland. Its relict type distribution has become accentuated in later historical times, particularly in Europe, where it is now very rare indeed except in some parts of Scandinavia and northern Russia. The systematics of this hunting cat's races (of which there are or were at least eight) have clearly not been fully worked out, especially as regards the (apparently) nameless population that still inhabits parts of Greece and perhaps also still neighbouring parts of the Balkans. This population, another in the Transylvania Alps and Carpathian Mountains of Romania and Russia, the extinct population of Italy and Sicily, the Sardinian race, lynx sardiniae (which is almost certainly also extinct), and the Spanish lynx, lynx pardina, are regarded by some authorities as a species separate from the rest. It is possible in the western Carpathians the northern and pardine groups may coexist; if so, the pardine lynx should be regarded as a full species, Lynx pardina. Fossil evidence supports this. Source: THE RED BOOK: Wildlife in Danger ©1969, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) page 79

Six year legal battle finally yields protection for boreal forest cat.

On February 11, 1998, thirteen environmental plaintiffs and two individuals -- headed by Defenders of Wildlife, Biodiversity Legal Foundation and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance -- celebrated a legal settlement to formally propose listing the lynx as Threatened or Endangered across its range in the Lower 48 states by June 30 of this year.

To read more on the details click HERE

Finland has issued 118 permits to kill lynx for the 1998 season. Intense pressures from poaching and loss of habitat have slowed the natural flow from the Russia. Compounding this is a rise in illegal hunting, while inflated population sizes are reported so as to increase the number of hunting permits for large predators across the Finnish countryside -- in effect, cutting the fresh flow of genes to populations in Norway and Sweden. Finnish conservationists report that large predator species are currently under jurisdiction of the Agriculture ministry. Can Finland afford to deny protection to their predator species, and continue to ignore the EU Habitats Directive of the union it has recently voted to join?

To learn more details and where to write letters of concern click HERE

It has been observed that in some forest habitats in Poland, the herbivore populations are high; they are not being regulated by predators, and thus the habitat shows significant stress. The lynx project, which aimed to re-introduce the lynx into central Poland to Kampinos National Park, was able to show that given the local climate and lowland forest condition, the predator seemed to be a necessary and welcome component to the ecosystem.

Learn more about Poland's reintroduction efforts by clicking HERE

The Junta de Andalucia has recategorized land near Doñana National Park from greenbelt to urban to pave the way for development. Finding its action went against a national conservation plan designed to protect Doñana, the Junta's next decision was to alter the conservation plan. The Doñana, one of only two major areas of unspoiled wetland and wilderness remaining in Western Europe, is home to the endangered Spanish Lynx.

To learn more details and where to write letters of concern click HERE

In Georgia, a group of concerned scientists banded together to form Noah's Ark Center for the Recovery of Endangered Species (NACRES). NACRES has pressured the government to remove all bounties on predators, and convinced President Shevardnadze to order poachers out of a major national park and persuaded him to sign the CITES treaty banning international trade in endangered species.

After the break-up of the USSR, poaching of endangered animals has become of particular concern. Interest in snow leopard and Turkestan lynx (lynx lynx isabellinus Blyth) has sharply increased. Everything is up for grabs through the black market using networks of acquaintances, middlemen, even ads in newspapers selling horns, skins, mounted trophies, and animal parts for traditional medicine.

Learn more about WWF's efforts, by clicking HERE

Learn more about WWF's efforts, by clicking HERE

Learn more about the situation by clicking HERE

Info on the wolf petition is HERE