Lynx in Switzerland

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Lynx in Switzerland

CAT NEWS
Issue 9, Autumn 1988

Lynx have been successfully reintroduced to Switzerland after a long absence. But the reintroduction has been surrounded by controversy, provoked mainly by hunters, who complain of lynx predation on roe deer and chamois, and also by farmers, who blame the lynx for loss of sheep. The authorities in the Canton of Valais, where the controversy has been most intense, have now demanded the right to hunt lynx and expect the Federal authorities to agree.

Meanwhile, Swiss biologists Urs Breitenmoser and Heinrich Haller have been gathering data on lynx ecology using radio telemetry. Recently Breitenmoser had the excitement of catching four lynx in four weeks in the Jura mountains, on Switzerland’s border with France, and another in the Canton of Valais in the Alps. The two have worked for several years in the Alps, but in the Jura they had had only one radio-collared animal -- in 1987.

The lynx were caught in double-door traps placed where lynx scent-marked in the autumn and winter. No bait is used. Foot snares, which do not harm the lynx, are placed by roe deer and chamois kills.

The Jura captures were of two adult males and two females. One female and a male were in the same area, and so it is thought that they are a couple. The other female is the daughter of the adult female, and probably of the male. Breitenmoser was lucky enough to catch her while she was still with her mother. She remained in her mother’s range for about three weeks and then moved along the Jura range. In less than two months she was about 110 km away.

The fourth lynx was caught in the Vallée de Joux, where a game ranger reported that he had found a roe deer killed by lynx.

"We put three foot snares around the carcass," Breitenmoser told me, "but there was a storm in the evening and the lynx did not return. We thought we were unlucky, but then, at one a.m. the alarm we had fixed to the snares sounded - and we had our lynx."

Even more, using heat sensing equipment he video-taped the lynx’s cautious approach to the kill, its retreat and return, when it set off a snare without getting caught. Despite the experience it came back again and was held.

Breitenmoser and Haller have collared 20 lynx - 12 females and eight males. At present they have seven active radio collars - four in the Jura, and three in the Valais. Theirs is the only study involving the capture of wild lynx that has been going on, although in Austria and the French Vosges mountains collars have been put on released lynx. But a study started in Norway in the past winter and four lynx have been caught and radio-collared.

Breitenmoser says that roe deer Capreolus capreolus provide the main prey. But in higher areas, as in some valleys in the Alps, where roe deer are less common, the lynx kills mainly chamois Rupicapra rupicapra. The lynx also takes brown hare Lepus capensis, blue hare Lepus timidus and marmot Marmota marmota. There have been cases of lynx taking ibex Capra ibex and red deer Cervus elaphus, but this seems very rare and roe deer and chamois form 95% of the prey.

According to official estimates there are about 100,000 roe deer, 68,000 chamois, 22,000 red deer, and 11,000 ibex in Switzerland. Breitenmoser estimates that an adult lynx kills about 60 chamois or roe deer a year. Given his estimate of the lynx population as about 50 to 100 adults the potential toll would be 3,000-6,000 of the estimated 168,000 roe deer and chamois.

PJ - "What about the complaints of shepherds that lynx take sheep?"

UB - "There are some problems with sheep. In Switzerland nowadays there is no tradition of living with big predators, which were eliminated over 100 years ago. Sheep owners put the flocks out in the Alps during the summer without guards. They may be checked once a week, but you cannot count them in this region. If there are losses you do not know whether it was the lynx or not. Sometimes there is proof, and in such cases good compensation is paid by the Swiss Government. The amount is agreed among the sheep-owners themselves."

The last of the original lynx population in Switzerland was seen in 1909, but according to Breitenmoser, the population in the Alps was really wiped out in the first part of the 19th century. In the Jura and the plains the lynx had already gone in the 18th century -- in the plains even in the 17th century. Thus lynx are now reoccupying areas where they have not existed for two or three hundred years.

The reintroduction programme began with releases in 1971 in the Canton of Obwald in central Switzerland, where eight lynx were released in three years. In 1974-75 lynx were released in the Jura.

"We know of the release of about 16 lynx in Switzerland, but there have been some unofficial releases too of which we do not know numbers nor places, nor the exact origin of the animals. Lynx have now reoccupied about two-thirds of the Swiss Alps, and then there is the Jura population.

"There has been opposition to lynx reintroduction, especially from hunters, but also from sheep owners. These psychological problems come up everywhere the lynx reappears as the population spreads out. Where hunters and farmers have found that they can coexist with the lynx, the opposition has declined now. But there are problems at the fringes of the population, particularly in the Canton of Valais today, but I think it will come too in other regions when the lynx arrives there. There are also some problems in the Jura. But at present the bad situation is in the Valais. It is a matter of generations. You have hunters and farmers who have never had to live with the lynx, and have enjoyed a paradise for hunting and letting their sheep roam freely. People have to learn to live with this big predator."

PJ - "Is the impact of the lynx really so heavy on the hunters’ prey -- roe deer and chamois?"

UB - "There are places where the impact of lynx on these species is really heavy. There are regions which have been closed to hunting, and others which have been open. The protected areas have been a reservoir for the ungulates. In a country with small valleys enclosed by high mountains, you may have a large chamois or roe deer population in one of them. Then you can see how quickly it is reduced when the lynx arrives. The point is that such ungulate populations are much higher than would have existed in natural conditions. It is not only mankind that is not used to having a big predator around, but also the chamois and, especially, roe deer.

"When lynx reintroduction started, these animals were not adapted to the presence of lynx. In the regions of the Bernese Oberland, where the lynx is found now, it was much easier to see roe deer and chamois a few years ago. The lynx had smaller home ranges, and often left a kill after eating a couple of haunches to kill again because the prey was so easy to catch. Then the prey base was reduced or spread out. We can see this phenomena now in the Valais, which is the front of the advancing lynx population. We are quite sure that the situation there will change in a few years, as it has changed in Obwalden and the Bernese Oberland, where the lynx has been longest. Lynx density will decrease and home ranges will become larger. The impact of lynx cannot be judged in the first few years. Prey populations will surely re-adapt."

PJ - "Although the hunters complain of the lynx killing roe deer and chamois, a large number of these ungulates are killed by vehicles on the roads. I have heard a figure of 10,000 a year mentioned."

UB - "Yes, but for hunters that is no argument. They say that if 10,000 are already killed on the roads, you should not bring back the lynx to kill even more. The other problem is that the lynx is only in the mountains, where hunters think conditions are hard enough for roe deer without the lynx."

PJ - "Have hunters killed lynx illegally?"

UB - "There is evidence of this. We know of more than 50 lynx killed in Switzerland by hunters and cars, or found dead for unknown reasons. With a current population of not more than 100, that is not a small figure."

PJ - "But this does suggest that the lynx population is regenerating well."

UB - "We hope that is the case, but there has been a decrease in the lynx population in the regions that were first reoccupied. Our hypothesis has been that this is a natural adaptation, but we are not absolutely sure. We shall know only in 20, 30 or even 50 years how the lynx has settled in Switzerland, and the whole alpine area, which extends into neighbouring countries. There is also the problem that only a small number of lynx have been released, all from the Carpathians in Czechoslovakia, and we do not know at present what effect this narrow genetic base will have.

"The lynx in Switzerland are absolutely isolated, and are likely to remain so in the long term. There are two other populations in or near the Alps - one in Austria, and a very good one in Slovenia, in Yugoslavia, which might in 100 years link up because they are not far apart. I think we should strive for one alpine lynx population. The Swiss and Austrian populations might link up in 20-30 years time. But the lynx population is developing slowly in the eastern region, compared with the west, where we have evidence of lynx in the French Alps, even near Grenoble, that we are sure came from Switzerland. There are discussions about reintroducing lynx in alpine regions of Italy and Germany."

PJ - "The lynx in the Vosges seem to be isolated with little chance of linking up with the Swiss population."

UB - "There is one region, called Sundgau, where it might be possible for a link with our Jura lynx, but it is not very likely. We shall only know if a good, expanding population establishes itself in the Vosges. At present things are not going very well."

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