Friday 17th January 2020

Up and off via the bus to meet up with Marie-Pierre. I definitely prefer the trams, it’s not so easy to work out how to buy your ticket for the bus!

It’s great to meet up with Marie-Pierre again, who I met briefly at the Lynx Expert Conference in Bonn last June.

I show her what I’ve written so far regarding the health/disease section of my report and I then get deluged by a wealth of information covering what’s understood to date on diseases in wild Eurasian lynx, how to undertake a thorough disease risk analysis for the species, the health risk assessments that should be followed as well as the potential pit falls. Such as the difficulties of distinguishing between infection and disease via serology tests.

Marie-Pierre tells me that the incidences of recorded disease in lynx in Switzerland seem to be increasing. This is likely to be due to a number of factors, for example, lynx coming into contact with domestic cats and contracting diseases that would not normally be present in wild living lynx such as Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV). Climate change may also be a factor, as disease and disease vectors tend to have an increased rate of survival in warmer conditions. Ectoparasites are now apparent in greater numbers, where previously, in colder conditions, they were rare or absent. Switzerland has experienced milder winters with less snowfall in recent years. However, this relationship has yet to be scientifically investigated.

There have also been some health issues with the lynx population in the Alps, which went through a genetic bottleneck. A few individuals have shown physical signs of abnormality particularly heart problems.

My chat with Marie-Pierre is incredibly interesting and very helpful, it particularly highlights the importance of thorough planning for all aspects of reintroduction projects as well as continual monitoring.

Friday 17th January (pm)

I get back on the bus and head back to the KORA offices for my meeting with Dr Fridolin Zimmermann. Fridolin has a wealth of experience in both lynx and wildcat research, particularly in habitat modelling and monitoring techniques. He is responsible for lynx monitoring in Switzerland and is incredibly enthusiastic and helpful.

I show him various chapters of my report and we run through the pro’s and con’s of habitat models, effective species monitoring and some aspects of compensation schemes.

I’m talked through several presentations, mapping outputs, research reports and papers and have a collection of links to documents put into a series of emails straight away. My head now hurts but in a good way and Fridolin offers to critique various sections of my report once I’ve added to it and re-written parts.

And with that my time with KORA is over. Thanks to all of you.