French Hunter Fined and Banned for Killing Lynx

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French Hunter Fined and Banned for Killing Lynx

CAT NEWS
Issue 18, Spring 1993

A French hunter who confessed to killing a radio-collared lynx in September 1991 (CAT NEWS 16) has been fined French francs 18,227 (about US$3,300) and banned from hunting for three years.

He has to pay FF.7,000 (about $1,280) to the public authorities and the rest to various conservation organizations.

The male lynx, named Miro, was being tracked in the Jura mountains near Switzerland's border with France. A German researcher, Manfred Wölfl, stumbled on the headless body of the lynx and followed the signal to find the collar hidden under a rock in a stream some distance away.

French police conducted an intensive interrogation of local hunters and finally the guilty man confessed.

On 27 November 1992 hunting dogs killed a six-month-old male lynx during a beat for wild boar in the Jura. The dogs killed the cub in a thicket where the radio-collared mother, Lora, was hiding with her two cubs. The hunters reported the incident to the local game warden. The second cub was not traced and is presumed dead.

Lora was later seen alone and limping and soon after found dead of starvation, having been unable to hunt. Examination disclosed a multi-fracture of a femur in which there were pieces of lead. Two holes, like those made by canine teeth, were found in her skull.

Over 100 lynx are believed to exist in the Alps and the Jura in Switzerland. They are derived from about 16 released during the early 1970s. The populations have been monitored and individuals radio-tracked since 1983.

A Eurasian Lynx Group, chaired by Urs and Christine Breitenmoser, has been established. It has 28 members from 14 countries.

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