Monday 3rd June – The Project begins

I’m picked up from Kaiserslautern station car park by Annina Prussing, a member of the LIFE Luchs team and driven to the SNU offices in Trippstadt. Annina spends the morning explaining as much as she can to me about the project and Sylvia Idelberger continues the chat in the afternoon. Helpfully, a large, extensive and very detailed presentation already exists in English, which allows me to sit, listen and ask questions without having to try to write every detail down.

The project has a wide range of partners, some of which are financing others are key stakeholders for other purposes. The project is 49% EU funded and received money from a Life bid of €2,750,000. Each lynx costs €10,000 in terms of initial fees for capture, veterinary health checks, quarantine, radio-collars, food, transport etc.

It becomes immediately clear just how well planned the project has been. As with all good projects a great deal of time and effort was put into the project before it started, in fact the origins of the project go back as far as 1977, which was when the original feasibility study was written. From those initial proposals, engagement with stakeholders began, which gradually built and intensified over the years.

Communication and building relationships with hunters was particularly important as this group could be seen as being negatively affected by the species (deer hunting is popular in Germany). The SNU got in contact with all of the hunting association leaders across the Rhineland Palatinate area to discuss and present the project to them. The heads of the association could then discuss the project with their own regional groups. A conference was held between the hunters and the SNU upon which feedback forms were acted upon. The proposal for the release was accepted by the hunters under the following broad terms;

• Open communication amongst all parties.
• Take account of roe deer numbers and population trends in other species.
• Hunters to be included as stakeholders.
• Releases to be restricted to the Rhineland Palatinate Forest.
• No other large carnivore releases.
• Illegal kills of lynx to be punished as well as illegal releases of lynx.
• Scientific research on the co-existence of lynx and roe deer to be undertaken.
• Every species is important and must be considered.
• Hunters to be included in species monitoring.
• Future – too many lynx, possibility of culls – this has yet to be defined.

The hunting association have gone on to produce their own information booklet, which was funded by the SNU.

Hunters are actively involved in the project, they regularly send in photo’s, videos or phone the SNU to tell them about sightings or potential lynx kills. A ‘thank you for your help’ payment is made to the hunters for the information. Not only does this help monitor the species movement, DNA can be taken from dead animals to verify if it’s the result of a lynx kill and can identify the individual lynx in some cases. The hunters are made to feel thoroughly engaged in the process.

The same approach is applied to other groups, for example, every year there is a ‘lynx eye’ project, an educational programme for school children spread across 4 months and 20 classes, with a meeting every month in Germany and France (entire Rhineland Palatinate area). The children decide what they want to do, this ranges from baking cookies to putting on theatre performances.

So, stepping back a little, why was the Rhineland Palatinate chosen as a lynx reintroduction area? Simple answer, the habitat, the largest mixed (beech dominated) broadleaved woodland in Germany, in fact in Europe! Approximately, 360,000 ha in total across France and Germany with 178,000 ha in Germany, 36,000 ha of the area is a UNESCO Biosphere site and is left unmanaged.

The site is 70% government owned, 20% community co-operatives, 10% private. The site is managed for both soft and hard wood timber production but the activities are largely cost neutral or a small amount of profit is made.

The aim over the time span of the project is to release a total of 20 lynx, with a roughly 1:1 ratio of males to females. This will form the founder population. The hope is for 45 animals to occupy the site eventually, given the size of the site and an average lynx territory size, 100km² for females, 250km² for males. These are very rough figures, having seen the minimum convex polygons (MCP’s) results, created for each individual lynx via the radio-collars, home ranges can vary considerably for both males and females depending on the time of year and can be much larger than the figures noted.

Further to this the project is built around the future spread of the species to join up with existing populations elsewhere either natural or reintroduced to enable gene flow across the population ranging from Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

For this project animals have been taken largely wild caught with the exception of a few orphaned individuals from NE Switzerland and Slovakia as these populations are robust enough to sustain the removal of a few individuals and are the most appropriate fit in terms of genetic suitability.

Three different procedures exist for catching the animals;

• Box traps
• Soft foot loops
• Minimum Invasive Capture System (MICS)

All, captured animals are veterinary health checked and quarantined according to the country of origin. There is a slightly longer quarantine period if the animals come from Slovakia, as there is the possibility they could have rabies, as they may have come into contact with the disease in Poland or Romania, so vaccinations are given as a precaution. The individuals are also checked for relatedness, no related animals are taken.

All, the animals are driven under sedation with GPS collars fitted to the release site and released immediately upon final veterinary health checks and the end of the quarantine period.

Monitoring is undertaken via GPS, through radio-telemetry collars, which stay on the animal for 1-2 years until they fall off themselves so no need for further intervention via sedation.

Monitoring also occurs via 70 camera traps (two per location) placed at strategic locations across the site, through the autumn/winter period. Monitoring also takes place via search dogs, more on monitoring and compensation schemes to follow ……..

The day ended with my first field visit to the viewing tower overlooking the Palatinate Forest, which also gave an appreciation of the elevation of the site, averaging 600m and at its highest point 670+ m. To watch video footage of the area go to the blog video page and view the two Rhineland Palatinate videos.

After struggling up the tower steps with a bag full of camera equipment, I ended the day chatting with Sylvia over pizza.

Tuesday 4th June – Field visits

The day starts in the SNU offices with a talk to Judith Ohm who tells me more about the compensation schemes in relation to farmers. For any animal killed (livestock) the full cost of that animal will be repaid. The SNU are keen to prevent animals being killed and in areas where there could be a problem, electric exclusion fencing is put in place, 90% of these costs are paid.

DNA swabs are taken from the killed animal to verify that the kill was the result of a lynx attack. To date only 4 animals have been killed (sheep/goats). Three were on one site where the fencing was poorly maintained, which is the duty of the farmer. The government funds the compensation scheme.

A ‘hotline’ exists for farmers or members of the public to call if there are concerns about a lynx or if there has been an attack on livestock and a visit will take place as soon as possible by SNU staff to provide reassurance, take DNA samples and if necessary assist with livestock fencing advice and claims.

There is a wealth of information leaflets that can be given out to assist a range of stakeholders including farmers, see previous photo.

I then accompanied Jonas ( a placement student) out on site to investigate a possible lynx kill site. Once, signals from the collars show an animal has remained in the same area for a few days the team go out to investigate as it’s likely to be the site of a kill.

Armed with GPS maps and trackers Jonas and I spent a good hour trying to find signs of lynx activity, we did find a few hairs and likely claw marks but no carcass or faeces.

Faeces analysis is undertaken both to identify the individual lynx but also to assess what the lynx have been eating. Over the lifespan of the project 80% of the animals that have been killed are roe deer, followed by red deer and mufflon with the remaining species accounting for roughly 1% each i.e. hares, rabbits, rodents, wild boar, birds.

So, back to the office for a change of personnel and two four legged friends. I accompanied Michael Back, who is a hunter himself and works for the SNU, which helps to further assist good relationships with the hunting community, to pick up camera traps and look for signs of lynx but this time with dogs. Accompanied by two scent dogs Bodo (a Hanoverian Hound) and Emil (a Fox Terrier) we set of at a pace and within two minutes, Bodo had found a clump of lynx hair and identified who it belonged to. He is trained to identify eight of the lynx that have been released. The use of scent dogs is an extremely valuable tool for monitoring the species, the signs of which are hard to find as they bury their faeces, hide kills and finding hair with the human eye in dense forest, is well, very difficult!

In the evening I accompanied Annina to a talk/presentation she was giving to a local hunting society. Although, the talk was in German so I couldn’t understand much of it, the body language was easy to judge. It was clear that the group were genuinely interested and keen to assist the SNU with their project. The members took away many leaflets including the highly detailed lynx management plan. The meeting was overwhelmingly positive, laughter, rounds of applause and the presentation of a bottle of wine to Annina at the end.

Wednesday 5th June – more site visits

I accompanied Judith out into the field to the area where the goats had been killed and where exclusion fencing had been put in. The photo’s below provide and impression of what this looks like but currently this isn’t a functional, maintained fence.

We moved on to a former den site, the photo’s below show the typical type of habitat where lynx will have their young. Thick litter piles, log piles, rocky outcrops, very hard to access if you are a human. Although, forestry activity occurs nearby and a forest road is close, their is minimal human activity.

We moved on to Tierart a wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary, which rehabilitates a wide range of wild animals. The SNU have an enclosure at the sanctuary for any lynx that have been injured. So, this was my first view of a lynx. We took a quick look at the rear of the enclosure but Kofu wasn’t too happy with us so we left him alone. Happily, he is fully recovered from his injuries and will be released in the next few days.

This was also my first view of a wildcat kitten, brought in by a member of the public. Again, a quick look.

We drove on to visit a green bridge. Although, this was not specifically built for lynx, it shows the type of construction used by a wide range of species and its know from the lynx collars and camera traps that individuals have been using green bridges, underpasses and even culverts!

Next we drove to an area with habitat more akin to the British countryside, large open agricultural areas, with patches of forest, which the lynx have visited on occasion.

Then we dashed back to the offices so that I could meet with Carolin Troger and Dr Ulf Hohmann who work for FORST, next door to the SNU. Carolin is undertaking her PhD investigating the possible effects of lynx on the roe deer population in the Palatinate Forest using a distance sampling approach via driven transects and IR cameras. Another vital part of the monitoring process, assessing impacts on other species.

After an office meeting back at the SNU, which I left the team to for the very exciting events about to unfold the next day …….. we ended the day with my first Schnitzel and beer.

Thursday 6th June – the day of the lynx release!

I must admit, I’ve been exceptionally lucky, this was planned to happen at another time. So, I got to be present at a release! All, lynx are released individually in the same release area. The only exception were the orphans who knew each other. So, go to the video blog page and enjoy the video of Brano the two year old male lynx from Slovakia being released, number 17!