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Issue 8, Spring 1988
Two female lynx, one with three young cubs, have been killed in Switzerland
and France, where they had been reintroduced.
The first killed was a female, which had been released in the Vosges last March,
along with three other lynx as part of a reintroduction programme which began in
1983. She gave birth to three cubs in August. In October her radio collar was
found buried in a pile of leaves. The cubs could not be found and must have
perished too.
Dr Véronique Herrenschmidt, who is in charge of research on the Vosges reintroduction
project, still hopes the culprit will be traced. But she says that the affair has
again aroused polemics over the project, which has been opposed by the hunting
community, and numerous cheques have been received by the Association for Protection
of Nature and the Environment.
Early in November another female lynx was shot by a hunter in the canton of
Neuchatel, Switzerland. It was also part of a reintroduced population. The headless
carcass was found by a another hunter, who informed the authorities. The museum
taxidermist said there was no doubt the lynx had been shot. There are five or lynx
in the canton.
Switzerland now has over 50 lynx as the result of a reintroduction programme which
began in the early 1970s. Here, too, many hunters have opposed the project. A recent
article in the Lausanne newspaper, 24 Heures, declared that in the region of La Dôle
on the Franco-Swiss border the chamois population -- also the result of
reintroduction -- had declined markedly in recent years, and it was suggested that
either the lynx or the hunters had to be removed from the area.
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Fierce Controversy over Lynx in Switzerland
Lynx in Switzerland
Hunters Kill Introduced Lynx
Plea for the Pyrenian Lynx
Fox and Lynx in Doñana National Park
Lynx in Switzerland
Cat Skins on Sale in Lhasa
Spanish Lynx in Trouble
The Plight of the Cats -- Europe