March 9, 2020 – The team behind the LIFE Lynx project, aiming to stabilise the population of lynx in the Alps and the Dinaric Alps, posted a video of a Croatian lynx walking near a road, which is an unusual sight as the wild cats don’t really like people and are usually trying to get as far away from them as possible.
The video was taken by Alen Brkić from Gorski Kotar, and it was recorded near Sopač, a small village in Gorski Kotar, near the junction from Lujzijana towards Mrkopalj. The video is of quite high quality and quite long, so it was not difficult for the experts from the LIFE Lynx project to recognise the lynx (and they had the help from the lynx’ GPS tracker which he’s had on since September 2019).
They’ve identified the lynx as Rista, which is a punny name in Croatian, as the lynx is called ris, so the lynx in question is actually “ris Rista” in Croatian. It’s not really correct to use the term “Croatian lynx”, as they’re free-moving animals, who don’t pay any attention to international borders (and don’t even seem to be bothered by the fence between Croatia and Slovenia).
The LIFE Lynx experts explain in their Facebook post that the lynx are usually solitary and territorial, but during the mating season (February – March) they become extremely active, cover large distances and enter other male’s territories as they’re searching for females. If you run across a lynx these days (which is not a frequent occurrence; most people will never see a live lynx even if they share the habitat) just let him or her walk away peacefully, don’t try to engage them in any way, and they will usually just go confidently in the direction of their dreams.
One thing to pay attention to is to recall your dogs, as an average dog might see a lynx as a somewhat bigger cat and try and pick a fight with it, but things will probably not end well for your dog, as lynx are strong animals.
We wish Rista the best of luck in his attempts to find a female and mate, as that will be one small step in the growth of a robust population of lynx in these parts!
Find out more about the international LIFE Lynx project.
