Translocation

Press release from the Saxon State Office for the Environment, Agriculture and Geology, 1 October 2026:

Today, in the early morning hours of October 1, another lynx has ventured into its new habitat in the forests of the Western Ore Mountains. She follows in the footsteps of the two lynxes, Lotta and Luca, who were released into the wild in August. This was announced by the Saxon State Office for the Environment, Agriculture, and Geology (LfULG) in Dresden.

The lynx is named Mia. She was born last year along with two siblings in the outdoor animal enclosure at the Falkenstein National Park Center in Bavaria. In this large, near-natural outdoor enclosure, the animals retain their natural wariness of humans. This set the stage from the very beginning for the lynx to be released into the wild at about one year of age.

“We are very pleased that there is a suitable reintroduction project in Saxony and that we have an animal that meets all the requirements of the Linking Lynx expert network. When we are able to release lynx into the wild, these are always very special moments,” says Ursula Schuster, director of the Bavarian Forest National Park. Not least, this would make an important contribution to the conservation of an endangered species, Schuster adds.

“It is particularly gratifying that two females from the European Conservation Breeding Program for the Carpathian lynx were able to be released into the wild in Saxony this year. They are of central importance for the further development of the population,” emphasizes Heinz Bernd Bettig, president of the Saxony State Environmental Agency. Only if the animals reproduce successfully can the lynx population in the Ore Mountains grow naturally. In addition, Mia brings new genes that have not previously been present in the Saxon lynx population. In the long term, this promotes the health and resilience of the still-small Saxon lynx population.

The “RELynx Saxony” project team hopes that the newly released lynx will permanently establish themselves in the Ore Mountains and, if possible, settle in the vicinity of the animals already living there. In this way, the small lynx population can gradually grow.

Technical Background:
Before being released into the wild, all lynx are fitted with GPS collars. The collars regularly transmit location data that provides information on where the animals are and whether they encounter one another. After about a year, the collars detach automatically, at which point monitoring is largely carried out using wildlife cameras.

With Mia’s release, there are now ten lynx that have been released into the wild in the Western Ore Mountains since 2024 as part of the “RELynx Saxony” project. In the first year of the release program, five animals were released, including the two wild-caught lynx, Alva and Nova, from the Swiss Jura Mountains, as well as the three male lynx from animal enclosures: Anton, Chapo, and Juno. Anton is no longer alive. He was struck by a car and fatally injured. In 2025, Charlie and Freya were released, and this year, the three lynxes Lotta, Luca, and Mia were released.

The animals designated for reintroduction projects come from the European Conservation Breeding Program for the Carpathian lynx. The distribution of suitable offspring is coordinated through the expert network Linking Lynx. The goal of Linking Lynx is to connect populations and establish a viable lynx metapopulation. This metapopulation is intended to extend from the Carpathians through the German low mountain ranges to the Jura and the Western Alps.