Translocation

Press release BUND Thuringia, 22.04.2026:

Gabriel is a male roe deer aged around five to six years and comes from the Ardeluța area (Neamț County) in the Romanian Carpathians. He was captured there using a live trap and weighed 23.6 kilograms at the time. Like all the animals in the project, he was fitted with a GPS collar that provides important data on his movements and falls off automatically after about a year. This allows the project partners to track how Gabriel moves around his new habitat and establishes a territory.

The biggest challenge for the lynx’s return remains the fragmentation of the landscape. Roads, settlements and intensive land use hinder the exchange between populations. This is precisely why the Thuringian Forest plays a key role: as a ‘stepping stone’, the area can link the populations in the Harz and the Bavarian Forest. Initial successes are already visible – last year, migrations from the Bavarian region were documented.

The project thrives on close cooperation between numerous partners – ranging from hunters and forestry authorities to nature conservation organisations. International cooperation is also a central component: some of the released animals were captured in the wild in the Romanian Carpathians, home to one of Europe’s largest lynx populations. Other lynx come from breeding programmes in European zoos.

Furthermore, the project also supports the monitoring of the local lynx population in Romania, thereby contributing to the protection of the species in its native habitat.

With the release of Gabriel, the project sends another strong signal for species conservation in Thuringia and for the return of a fascinating species that was long considered extinct.

Background
“Lynx Thuringia – Connecting Europe’s Lynx” is a joint project of BUND, WWF, ThüringenForst, the Hütscheroda Wildcat Village, the Thuringian State Hunting Association, the UNESCO Thuringian Forest Biosphere Reserve, the Thuringian Forest Nature Park, Georg-August University of 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 aim is to establish a stable and self-sustaining lynx population in Central Europe through targeted reintroductions and the connectivity of existing populations. Many of the lynx released into the Thuringian Forest originate from the conservation breeding programme of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).

The project is being implemented under the ‘Support for Nature and Landscape Development Projects (ENL)’ programme and is funded by the Thuringian Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Nature Conservation and Forestry. Funding is provided from the Free State of Thuringia as well as from ENL funds under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). Here, Europe and the Free State of Thuringia are investing in rural areas.