Translocation

The one-year-old lynx was originally intended as a breeding animal for the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). The young lynx (born in 2023) grew up with his two brothers in a large lynx enclosure (1860m2) at Nuremberg Zoo under special conditions. In particular, care was taken to minimise contact with the animal keepers and to feed them exclusively meat of wild prey species. All three brothers were categorised by experts from the Linking Lynx Network as shy and potentially suitable for reintroduction. One of them was earmarked for reintroduction in Thuringia. This lynx was to remain in the EEP as further suitable breeding animals are needed.

At the beginning of June, the lynx was transported from Nuremberg to the lynx enclosure at the Rabenklippe in the Harz Mountains. Shortly after its arrival, the lynx managed to escape over the fence of the enclosure. It was recaptured shortly afterwards using an anaesthetic gun and then spent some time in a closed enclosure. Handling the animal proved to be difficult. The lynx kept trying to find a way out of the enclosure and found it difficult to calm down. As it obviously found it difficult to acclimatise to its new surroundings, with its welfare in mind those responsible decided to release the lynx into the wild instead.

The Carpathian lynx, which had already undergone all the necessary health checks, was then brought to Saxony. There it was released into the wild in July as part of the «ReLynx Saxony project». As a wild lynx, it will now help to establish a new lynx population in Saxony. This will act as a so-called stepping stone population, i.e. a link between existing European lynx populations. It will thus contribute to the networking of the Carpathian lynx population in Europe.

The necessary authorisations from the Free State of Saxony for the reintroduction have been granted. The process leading up to the reintroduction was supported by experts from the Linking Lynx network.