Translocation

Ministry of the Environment, BUND, WWF and ThüringenForst, 27/08/2024:

Erfurt/Berlin. As part of the species conservation project „Luchs Thüringen – Europas Luchse vernetzen“ two more lynx were successfully released into the wild in the central Thuringian Forest today. The young lynx Vreni and Kilian are following in the footsteps of Frieda and Viorel, who were released in this region in May 2024. A female lynx with cubs was also recently recorded by a wildlife camera in the southern Thuringian Forest. The unexpected lynx offspring is the first recorded lynx reproduction in the Thuringian Forest for over 150 years and a pleasant surprise for the entire project team. Together with their reintroduced conspecifics, the young lynx are laying the first foundations for a long-term stable lynx population in the Thuringian Forest.

Environment Minister Bernhard Stengele (represented on site today by State Secretary for the Environment Vogel) explains: ‘I am delighted with every progress of this pioneering European project - both the further reintroduction and the first lynx offspring in the Thuringian Forest. With a stable lynx population in the Thuringian Forest, we are getting step by step closer to our common goal of a well-connected lynx population in Germany and Central Europe.’

Female lynx Vreni, born in spring 2023 at Langenberg Zoo in Switzerland, and male lynx Kilian, from Nuremberg Zoo, come from the European Association for Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) conservation breeding programme for the Carpathian lynx. They grew up in large, near-natural enclosures. In April 2024, the animals arrived at the BUND Wildcat Village in Hütscheroda and initially moved into an enclosure specially built for the reintroduction of lynxes. Here they were prepared for life in the wild and their behaviour was thoroughly observed. ‘Both lynx showed a pronounced shyness towards humans right from the start,’ explains Dr Max Boxleitner, lynx expert at WWF Germany, ’after a positive assessment by a panel of experts, they were fitted with GPS collar transmitters at the beginning of August and transferred to our reintroduction enclosure in the Thuringian Forest. The data from the collars will help us to monitor the animals‘ spatial behaviour in the wild.’

The lynxes Frieda and Viorel, who were released into the wild in May 2024, have settled in well to their new surroundings. The GPS data from their collar transmitters show that Frieda is mainly roaming in the vicinity of Oberhof, while Viorel has already undertaken longer trips and has even ventured as far as the Franconian Forest. ‘Both lynxes are proving to be skilful hunters. With the help of GPS data, we have already been able to track down prey killed by the lynx in the field on several occasions,’ explains Dr Markus Port, conservation biologist at BUND Thüringen and the University of Göttingen.

Viorel may already have had contact with other lynx in the southern Thuringian Forest. ‘The data from our camera traps, which we have set up in southern Thuringia since autumn 2023, suggest that there are at least three different lynx in the area bordering Bavaria,’ adds Port. The photo of the female lynx with her cubs, which was sent to the Schönbrunn Forestry Office in mid-August, also comes from this area. ‘We are delighted with the unexpected lynx reproduction,’ says Jürgen Boddenberg, Head of Forest Nature Conservation at ThüringenForst. ‘It shows that our forests offer the lynx an excellent habitat. And proves that the timing of our project is well chosen to support the tentative beginnings of the Thuringian-Bavarian lynx population through targeted reintroduction.’ The origin of the female lynx is not yet known. She probably migrated to the Thuringian Forest via the Franconian Forest. Between 2016 and 2023, a total of four orphaned young lynx were relocated from the Bavarian Forest to northern Bavaria, where they have successfully reproduced. 

Background:
The "Luchs Thüringen – Europas Luchse vernetzen" project will run until the end of August 2027 and is being implemented as part of the "Förderung von Vorhaben zur Entwicklung von Natur und Landschaft" (ENL) of the Thuringian Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation (TMUEN) - and is being jointly funded by BUND Thüringen and BUND Bundesverband, WWF Germany, the Wildcat Village Hütscheroda, ThüringenForst, the Thuringian State Hunting Association, the UNESCO Thuringian Forest Biosphere Reserve, the Thuringian Forest Nature Park, Georg August University Göttingen and the Romanian project partners ACDB and Romsilva. The project is part of the European lynx expert network Linking Lynx, which is dedicated to the conservation and connectivity of lynx populations in Central Europe. The Ministry of the Environment is supporting the project with around 2.9 million euros until 2027, of which one fifth comes from the Thuringian state budget and the remaining 80 per cent is co-financed by EU ENL funds.