130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

Scale Status Population trend Justification Threats
Global
[5]
Least Concern Stable Wide range 1. Illegal hunting
2. Habitat loss
3. Prey base depletion
Europe
[8]
Europe 25
[8]
Least Concern Unknown Wide range
High abundance
Near
Threatened
Unknown
Small population size
Small, fragmented populations
1. Prey base depletion
2. Legal and illegal hunting
3. Habitat destruction
4. Human encroachment
5. Collisions
N/A
Europe –
regional
populations
Critically
Endangered:
Vosges-
Palatinian,
Eastern Alps,
Bohemian-
Bavarian,
Balkan [8]
Endangered:
Jura, Western
Alps, Dinaric [8]
Least Concern:
Carpathian,
Scandinavian,
Karelian,
Baltic [8]
Decrease:
Balkan, Vosges-
Palatinian [6]
Mixed: lpine,
Dinaric [6]
Stable: Baltic,
Bohemian-
Bavarian,
Carpathian,
Karelian [6]
Increase:
Scandinavian,
Jura [6]
1. Alpine – Persecution, Low acceptance due to conflicts
with hunters, Infrastructure development due to
transport (roads/railways), Inbreeding [6]
2. Balkan – Persecution, Over-harvesting of prey
populations, Poor management structures,
Infrastructure development [6]
3. Baltic – Persecution, Low acceptance due to conflicts
with hunters, Vehicle collision [6]
4. Bohemian-Bavarian – Persecution, Low acceptance
due to conflicts with hunters, Vehicle collision [6]
5. Carpathian – Infrastructure development due
to transport (roads/railways), Infrastructure
development due to tourism/recreation,
Persecution [6]
6. Dinaric – Inbreeding, Persecution [6]
7. Jura – Low acceptance due to conflict with hunters,
Vehicle collision, Persecution, Inbreeding [6]
8. Karelian – Harvest [8]
9. Scandinavian – Persecution, Low acceptance (conflict
with livestock; conflict with hunters; as form of
political opposition to national/EU intervention;
due to fundamental conflict of values about species
presence) [6]
10. Vosges-Palatinian – Low acceptance due to conflict
with hunters [6] Table 1.
natural density of lynx varies according to prey
abundance and is also limited by the territoriality
among individuals, but the availability of suitable
habitat becomes the prevailing limiting factor in
cultivated landscapes [2] . Reported densities vary
between 0.25 individuals/100 km 2 in Norway
where there is low prey abundance to 1.9–3.2
individuals/100 km 2 in Poland [2] .
Legal protection and conservation status
The Eurasian lynx is listed on CITES (Appendix
II), and protected under the Bern Convention
(Appendix III) and EU Habitats and Species
Directive (Annexes II and IV) [5] , and therefore
strictly protected in all EU member states except
Estonia, where it is included on Appendix V [6] .
However, implementation of this protection varies
between countries; Sweden, Latvia and Finland,
for example, use derogations of the directive
for limited culls by hunters [6] . In Norway, the
lynx is hunted as a game species with annual
quotas [6] . Only half the range countries currently
have management plans in place, while several
others are in the process of drafting one [6] . Transboundary
agreements exist in the Alps [6] and the
Carpathians [7] . In addition to legal protection,
conservation measures include public education,
and reintroductions. A high-profile introduction
was carried out in the Swiss Jura mountains in
the 1970s as part of a plan to boost the Alpine lynx
population, which has also included other reintroductions
in Slovenia, Germany, Austria and Italy [1] .
The global IUCN Red List categorises lynx as
Least Concern with a stable population trend
throughout most of its range (Table 1). In Europe,
the species is also listed as Least Concern but the
population trend is unknown (Table 1).
Abundance and distribution:
current status
In terms of population size (Table 2), a recent
estimate puts the total number of individuals
globally at 50,000, with the European population
(excluding Russia, Belarus and Ukraine)
accounting for 9,000–10,000 or a minimum of
18% of these, while also covering around a fifth of
Summary of Global
and European Red
List assessments and
threats listed for the
Eurasian lynx.
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