Translocation

Press release from the State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, Saxony, Germany, 2 September 2025:

Today, Tuesday, September 2, 2025, another lynx was released into the wild as part of the “RELynx Saxony” project in the Eibenstock/Westerzgebirge forest district. This was announced by the Saxon State Office for Environment, Agriculture, and Geology in Dresden.

The animal is a one-year-old female lynx named Freya. She was born in the Zurich Wildlife Park in a special breeding enclosure as part of the Carpathian lynx conservation program. Freya spent the last few months in a coordination enclosure at the Hütscheroda Wildcat Village in Thuringia, where she was specifically prepared for life in the “wild.”

Freya has successfully passed the behavioral tests developed by the Linking Lynx network of experts. She shows a marked shyness towards humans and has learned to use whole wild carcasses in the enclosure. This is an important step towards her independence in the wild.

The release of another female lynx is a significant contribution to building up the still small population in the region. With the help of her collar transmitter, it will be possible to track whether Freya encounters other lynxes in the Eibenstock forest district and how she is coping in her new habitat.

Just yesterday, Charlie the lynx, who comes from Karlsruhe Zoo, was released into the wild and is now roaming the Eibenstock forest. With these two animals, the releases for 2025 are complete. Further releases of two to a maximum of three lynxes are planned for 2026.

Technical background to “RELynx Saxony”
“RELynx Saxony” is part of a Germany-wide strategy. With the releases in the Ore Mountains, the Free State of Saxony is contributing to lynxes being able to permanently repopulate their original habitats in Germany. The animals released into the wild in Saxony have a special task: they are to contribute to the networking of the still vulnerable Central European lynx population and, in the long term, ensure genetic exchange, especially between the Harz Mountains, Bavaria, and Eastern Europe. Releases of the Carpathian lynx are currently taking place in projects in Saxony, Thuringia, and Baden-Württemberg.

The RELynx project works in close cooperation with the Linking Lynx expert network. The aim of Linking Lynx is to connect populations and establish a viable lynx metapopulation stretching from the Carpathians through the German low mountain ranges to the Jura and the Western Alps. This requires cross-border cooperation, further reintroductions, and the genetic strengthening of threatened populations. The experts are jointly developing protocols and standards, including for the suitability of captive-bred lynx for release into the wild.