Macedonia: Save the Balkan Lynx

A wild cat both revered as an icon and reviled as a pest that has
teetered on extinction for nearly a century. “The lynx has no natural
enemy except man,” said Georgi Ivanov, an ecologist working on a
project to monitor lynx numbers in western Macedonia’s Galicica
National Park, where 30 such cameras have been set up.

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Poaching is one of the biggest threats to the survival of this Balkan
subspecies of the European lynx, the largest wild cat found on the
continent. Though its overall numbers are uncertain, they seem to
hover dangerously around the 100 scientists say are needed for their
population to remain stable.

In Albania and Macedonia, foreign experts put their number at less than 80 though local counterparts say there are fewer than 40. The estimates in neighbouring Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia are even worse.

Lynx are killed by villagers in the impoverished region mainly for their prized fur, a spotted golden-brown. But dwindling forests and a lack of prey are also factors in their decline, experts say. The monitoring scheme is also
underway in Mavrovo National Park, also in western Macedonia, and in
Albania in cooperation with the Swiss-based research group KORA,
Germany’s Euronatur and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
(NINA).

In addition to determining the cats’ status, via camera date,
research and interviews, the project aims to establish protected areas
for the animal and help local authorities develop a conservation
strategy. It is due to wind up at the end of 2009, Melovski said.

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