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Issue 14, Spring 1991
European governments have been advised that they should draw up management plans to
conserve viable populations of lynx, and take measures to deal with problems of
livestock predation.
Recommendations to this effect were adopted on 11 January 1991 by the Standing Committee
on the Protection of the European Lynx under the (Bern) Convention on the Conservation
of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. They followed a meeting of lynx specialists
in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in October 1990 (see following report).
The Standing Committee said the lynx was "seriously threatened" throughout a substantial
part of western Europe, having become extinct in some countries and reduced to small
populations in others. The causes were habitat loss, shortage of prey, progressive
fragmentation of populations and human-induced mortality.
The committee called on parties to the Bern Convention to develop protection measures for
livestock, such as encouraging guarding of flocks at night with electric fences or dogs,
and encouraging the maintenance and training of local races of sheep dogs. Implementation
of compensation schemes should be improved, and such schemes should be established, where
absent. Indirect damage to livestock by lynx attacks, such as decrease in weight or in
fertility, should be studied.
Indiscriminate methods of killing, including poisons and anaesthetics, should be banned,
as well as leg traps and snares for the capture of any animal. Particular attention should
be paid to habitat protection, and the impact of projects for public works, tourism and
other developments affecting the habitat studied.
Research on lynx biology and behaviour, and general monitoring should be encouraged. Public
awareness campaigns should be aimed at rural populations, hunters, school children and
local decision-makers.
The committee specifically called for research to improve knowledge of the status of lynx
in the Pyrenees, and for conservation and education programmes in Turkey to conserve lynx
and other threatened cats, including leopard Panthera pardus.
Consideration of the possibilities of captive breeding and reintroduction in former lynx
areas was recommended. Genetic studies should be carried out to avoid the possible negative
effects of introducing individuals from genetically different stocks.
The committee invited European states not parties to the Bern Convention (specifically
Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and USSR) to consider the coordination and joint
management of lynx in the Carpathian mountains: extending close season for lynx hunting
to the end of December in Czecho-Slovakia; more precise and scientific monitoring of
the lynx population in Poland, together with a ban on hunting until it had been
scientifically shown that lynx were not decreasing; and more efficient monitoring of
lynx in the Macedonia-Kosovo-Montenegro region.
In a separate set of recommendations concerning the Iberian or pardel lynx Lynx pardina,
the committee noted that it had become extinct in two-thirds of the territory it occupied
30 years ago, mainly because of habitat loss, reduction of the rabbit population, progressive
population fragmentation and human-induced mortality. It added that areas where the lynx
lived, and those which it might recolonize, were of great biological importance.
The committee called for efforts to increase public knowledge of the practical problems of
the pardel lynx, and the establishment of a databank to assist in finding solutions to
problems involving the lynx.
It recommended habitat protection and impact assessments where projects for public works,
reforestation, tourism and other developments might affect lynx habitat. Leg traps and
snares for rabbits and for predators should be banned, and commercial rabbit farmers should
use alternative methods, such as netting.
Hunters should be reminded of the total ban on shooting pardel lynx in beats and of the
heavy fines imposable on offenders. Tourism should be limited in sensitive areas. The
authorities should have the means of keeping a close watch on private hunting, and land
owners should be encouraged by tax reduction or other measures to conserve lynx.
In order to improve the situation of lynx prey, measures were recommended to build up
rabbit populations, to improve vegetation cover, and to provide for public purchase of
private hunting rights.
The committee said research was needed in Spain and Portugal on lynx, as well as the
reasons for the reduction in rabbit populations, and to identify the most appropriate
methods of restocking.
Captive breeding pardel lynx should be considered with a view to possible reintroduction in the wild.
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Cat News
CN15: Autumn '91
International Specialists Support Italian Lynx Project
Male Lynx Sharing Territory in Poland
Female Lynx Range and Cub Mortality
Black Forest Lynx Reintroduction Plan Rejected
CN14: Spring '91
Conservation of Lynx in Europe
European Lynx Specialists Confer
CN13: Autumn '90
French Hunters Call for Lynx Control
Newly released lynx dies in Vosges
Taxonomic Status of the Pardel Lynx
CN12: Spring '90
Hazards for Reintroduced Canadian Lynx in Adirondacks
CN11: Autumn '89
Issues 21 to Current
Will the Lynx Return to Central Italy
Editorial: Lynx, Tigers and Test-tubes
Snow Leopards and Lynx get Vast Reserve in Tibet
Cat Conservation Strategy and Action Plan
Lynx Predation on Sheep in France