Translocation

State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, 26/08/2024:

Today (26 August), the fifth lynx was released into the wild in Saxony's Westerzgebirge region. According to the Saxon State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, the transport and release of the almost one-and-a-half-year-old lynx Anton went smoothly. As soon as the slider of the transport crate had opened a little, Anton seized his chance and leapt into the wild.

Anton grew up in a large breeding enclosure in a Belgian zoo and has spent the last few months being prepared for his release into the wild in the coordination enclosure of the wild cat village of Hütscheroda in Thuringia. He has passed all the behavioural tests and health checks required for release into the wild. Like all lynx released as part of the ‘RELynx Saxony’ project, Anton was also fitted with a GPS transmitter collar for the scientific monitoring of the project.

Saxony's Environment Minister Wolfram Günther: ‘Around three hundred years after their extinction in Saxony, we have been bringing the lynx back since this spring. This is a major milestone in our endeavours to preserve biodiversity. The lynx belongs in our forests. In the future, the lynx should colonise the Ore Mountains and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and thus form a bridge between the Harz Mountains and the lynx population in Bavaria and Eastern Europe. I am delighted that Anton is the fifth animal to find a home in the Westerzgebirge today. I wish him and all the lynx already living here or living here in the future that they settle in well and establish a stable lynx population together.’

All of the animals released into the wild so far, the two cats Nova and Alva and the two cubs Juno and Chapo, are still on site. This is a sign that they feel at home in the Saxon forests. They find sufficient food and quiet retreats here, which they use as sleeping places during the day. As the transmitter data and analyses of the photo trap monitoring show, the lynx are aware of each other. Although they tend to avoid each other outside the mating season and roam alone, this population nucleus of cats and cubs offers the best conditions for the first Saxon lynx offspring in 2025. In spring 2025, the project team is still hoping for wild females from the Swiss Jura that could participate in reproduction. Offspring in the initial phase of such a project is very important in order to stabilise the population and increase genetic diversity. The signs are good that a stable stepping stone population can quickly establish itself in the Ore Mountains.

News from the four lynxes already released into the wild

Chapo, who was released into the wild on 10 July, initially stayed in the immediate vicinity of the release site and then quickly explored the area south of Eibenstock. While he initially only fed on small mammals such as mice, he killed his first deer after around three weeks. In addition, on 29 July, GPS locations of Chapo and the one year older Kuder Juno were only 50 metres apart. It cannot be ruled out that the two male lynxes met. What is certain is that they now know about each other. Lynx divide up the available habitat by setting olfactory boundaries using scent marks. After taking his first deer on his own, Chapo is currently staying in the Platten area in the Czech Republic.

After exploring the Ore Mountains over a large area, the other three lynxes now seem to have established fixed territories. The territories of the two cats hardly overlap at present: Nova has a territory around Eibenstock to Zschorlau, Alva from Schönheide to Graslitz in the Czech Republic. Juno's home range is between Wildenthal, Oberwildenthal and Wilzschmühle and includes parts of both lynx cat territories.

The ‘RELynx Saxony’ project was launched in September 2022 on behalf of the Saxon Ministry of the Environment (SMEKUL). The Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz and the Chair of Forest Zoology at the Technical University of Dresden are involved in the project. The LfULG is in charge of the project. The practical measures are supported by the state enterprise Sachsenforst.