Illegal Killing Poses Greatest Threat to Lynx

Human influences dominate mortality of lynxes

The study is based on one of the largest data sets to date on lynx mortality in Europe. The researchers succeeded in calculating precise survival rates and causes of mortality with the help of telemetry data from twenty-one different research projects.

The research team found out that over thirty-three per cent of the documented deaths were attributable to illegal killing. Another remarkable finding was that the mortality rates of lynxes did not differ significantly between protected and hunted populations. In both cases, the influence of humans – for example through legal or illegal hunting and vehicle collisions – was the dominant cause of death. The mortality of lynxes was increased overall, because the decline in natural deaths could not fully compensate for the increased mortality caused by humans.

The researchers also determined that male lynxes are at a higher risk of mortality than females, particularly during the winter months and hunting season.

Protection of lynx habitats crucial for conservation of populations

The study suggests possible solutions. For example, the researchers succeeded in proving that lynxes living at a greater distance from human infrastructure often have better chances of survival. For the conservation of lynx populations, it is therefore important to maintain and expand protected areas in which the animals are not exposed to human interventions.

‘Our study shows that the chances of survival of lynxes are greatly reduced through illegal killings and other anthropogenic factors – similarly to other large predators like wolves. If lynxes are to have a chance of survival in the long term, we must take more rigorous action against illegal killing and ensure that they have sufficiently large, undisturbed, and contiguous habitats’, explains Heurich.