Translocation Update

Press release, «Wildnispark Zürich», 02.10.2024:

About a month ago, Vreni, a female lynx born in the Langenberg animal park, was released into the wild in Germany. Now there is good news: «She is doing very well, our young Swiss lynx!», reports Markus Port, project coordinator of «Lynx Thuringia». At the beginning, she killed small prey animals, but now she has also been able to catch several deer «Although Vreni has never been able to hunt a deer as an enclosure animal before, she is already doing so very successfully and, so far, her hunting behaviour hardly differs from that of a lynx born in the wild», explains Markus Port.

Karin Hindenlang Clerc, managing director of the «Wildnispark Zürich», is delighted: «According to the statistics, deer are the main prey of wild lynx. We have prepared Vreni for this at the Langenberg animal park.» Lynx that are to be released back into the wild are only fed animals that correspond to those in the wild at the «Wildnispark Zürich» – for example deer and stags, with skin and hair. The lynx enclosure at Langenberg Zoo is one of the few places in Europe where young lynx can be prepared for an independent life in the wild. They are raised here with as little human contact as possible.

Positive influence on forest ecosystems

Karin Hindenlang Clerc: «Lynx play an important role in biodiversity. Their presence has a positive effect on the ecosystem, particularly in the forest, where they help to regulate wild ungulates such as deer.» This has a positive influence on the browsing of young trees, among other things, and benefits forestry, an aspect that is often forgotten in the public debate about large predators.

Proximity to lynx male Kilian

Since her release, Vreni has had an activity radius of about 7 km² in the area near her release enclosure in the central Thuringian Forest. This means she still covers a small area. However, this is normal for a newly released animal A female lynx living in the wild usually has a home range of over 50 km². «Based on the latest transmitter data, we suspect that Kilian, the male lynx from Nuremberg that was released together with Vreni, is still in her vicinity,» explains Markus Port. Vreni and Kilian had shared a compartment of the coordination enclosure in the Wildkatzendorf Hütscheroda and got along very well there.