Reintroduction of the Lynx into the Alps

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Reintroduction of the Lynx into the Alps

CAT NEWS
Issue 29, Autumn 1998
Book Reviews

Editors Christine Breitenmoser-Würster,
Christoph Rohner and Urs Breitenmoser
Council of Europe Publishing
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
ISBN 92-871-3559-2
157 pp.

A century ago the lynx had become extinct in the Alps and the Jura Mountains (on the border of Switzerland and France), and other large mammals, including ibex, red deer, roe deer, wolf, and brown bear had been either extirpated on reduced to very small populations by hunting and loss of habitat. Efforts to reintroduce species began as early as 1913 when ibex from their last western sanctuary in the Gran Paradiso, Italy, were smuggled into Switzerland. As time went on red and roe deer populations increased and spread, while wolves and bears hung on in some areas.

Restoration of the lynx began in the 1970s in Switzerland and Slovenia, when prey populations had reached a satisfactory level. Lynx were also released in the other alpine countries, Austria, France, Germany and Italy. The lynx now roams a considerable area, but, as Swiss specialist Urs Breitenmoser remarks in his conclusions of this first situation report: "A viable lynx population in the Alps, with a safe future, has not been achieved."

There are small cores of reintroduced lynx, but they have not linked up, and the challenge is to consolidate them into a viable population for the future.

This book covers the proceedings of the first SCALP (Status and Conservation of the Alpine Lynx Population) Conference, held at Engelberg, in the Swiss Alps in 1995. The conference brought together not only representatives of the six Alpine countries, but also experts on large carnivores and prey species from other parts of Europe and North America. The result is a valuable review of the problems of reintroduction and monitoring of a range of large carnivores, not just the lynx, and not just in Europe.

Although there was wide public support for reintroducing Europe’s big cat (the Eurasian lynx is almost twice the size of the Canada lynx and takes large prey), sheep farmers, fearing for their flocks, and hunters, resenting a competitor, have still to accept a key component of the natural environment. But, as Simon Capt points out, as far as Switzerland is concerned, livestock predation may occur regularly but is rare, while the quantiative impact of lynx on roe deer and chamois populations is not perceptible and the hunting bag has not altered over time.

The Council of Europe’s office of the Bern Convention on Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, which published these proceedings, has since cooperated with WWF and various conservation entities in developing a set of Large Carnivore Action Plans, which are expected to be published in 1999.

Copies can be ordered from:
KORA
Thunstrasse 26
3074 Muri, Switzerland
Email: kora@swissonline.ch

The status reports on the lynx have been published in the Italian Journal of Mammology, Hystrix (Vol.10), and copies can also be ordered from the KORA office.

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