Eisenach (dpa/th) – Almost 80 experts from 20 countries came together in Eisenach on Tuesday for a two-day meeting to talk about the current situation of the lynx in Europe. “Due to its central location, Thuringia plays an outstanding role in connecting the lynx populations of Central Europe,” said Marco Heurich, scientific coordinator of the Eurolynx network, on the choice of the conference venue. In addition to methodological questions and the latest research results, according to the BUND Thüringen, the question of how the lynx populations of Central Europe can be better connected is also on the agenda.
Networking of the different lynx populations would be urgently needed so that there could be a genetic exchange of occurrences, as the project coordinator lynx at BUND Thuringia, Markus Port, explained. However, it is already difficult in Germany to enable the lynx to migrate between the Harz Mountains, Thuringia and the Bavarian Forest, for example. In the BUND Thuringia lynx project, animals from the Romanian Carpathians, among other things, are to be resettled in the Free State. In addition, in the wildcat village of Hütscheroda (Wartburgkreis), young lynx are to be raised and later released into the wild. According to Ports, things should start in 2024.
Further settlement projects in Europe will be presented at the conference in Eisenach. From a scientific point of view, the dispersal behavior of the big cats with the characteristic brush ears should be considered.
