How the Lynx is silently spreading all over Europe

this is the eurasian lynx the third largest predator in europe and a far cry from your typical house cat like any large predator they play a critical role in ecosystems but for centuries they've been disappearing from european forests until recently that is today we want to show you why they are so important for our wild ecosystems the story of how they bounced back from near extinction in europe and what it could mean for you if one moved in down the street eurasian links are the largest of the four link species with long legs and big webbed paws which help them stalk their prey on the snow in the summer they have a short black spotted brown coat with white fur underneath and on the neck and chin whereas in winter they have a much thicker silvery coat both looks are quite striking which naturally is a big part of why they were massacred they work as ambush predators which helps them to take down prey which would often have the edge on them one way or the other some species that links prey on can do serious damage in a fair fight like wild boar red fox or martins and some could simply outrun them like rabbits hares or squirrels yet their preferred prey is arguably also the most dangerous most commonly they'll take medium-sized ungulates like rhodia which are more or less the same size as them but have also been recorded taking down prey as large as reindeer or young moose these are quite large animals to say the least so the lynx relies on catching them off guard and gripping onto their necks where they can't be hit to take them down this is where their main role as a keystone species comes into play like other predators they not only help control the population of their prey animals but also install an ecology of fear what that means is they keep prey species on their toes or i guess hooves in this case and keep them moving onto new areas rather than overgrazing one specific place this greatly assists processes like natural regeneration which are essential for a healthy forest ecosystem the eurasian lynx was once found across much of continental europe but due to centuries of unsustainable hunting it disappeared from most of western and central europe by the 1950s when the estimated wild population fell below 700. but in the second half of the 20th century legal protections in places like finland and sweden helped the species to recover and reintroduction programs returned the species to some of its previous range thanks to those efforts the european population has recovered to around 10 000 today it's bounced back from the brink of european extinction and re-cemented its place in our ecosystems but those numbers don't quite tell the full story due to the historically fragmented nature of lynx populations multiple subspecies have emerged there are six officially recognized subspecies of eurasian links four of which can be found in europe if you were wondering which one got unlucky that would be the northern links which ended up with a trinomial name links links links because there always has to be one however there is a big disparity in the numbers across these subspecies for instance there are thousands of carpathian links left compared to an estimated 60-120 balkan links which is the rarest of the subspecies and is considered critically endangered generally speaking though the populations that survived past the 1950s have bounced back and are now being used to repopulate the species all over the continent between 1971 and 2009 there were 15 separate lynx reintroduction attempts in europe of these only five were successful with four being highly uncertain and six being clear failures one successful reintroduction happened in the jura mountains in switzerland between 1972 and 1975 10 animals believed to have been taken from the wild population in carpathians were released by 2007 that population had expanded to an estimated 70 individuals with their territory now covering 7 000 kilometers squared on both the swiss and french sides of the mountain range it's quite unusual that this attempt was actually successful as the links were translocated and hard released into the area with no follow-up this was through a mix of official and underhanded releases and it wasn't until much later in 1992 that attempts were made to systematically monitor the population a less successful reintroduction if you can even call it that occurred on the grand paradiso mountain in italy just two male links were released here one was found dead in france eight months later and the other disappeared without any trace these two examples paint a general picture of link's rewilding at the time many of these older reintroductions were poorly planned and tracked so the success of projects like the one in the jura mountains was more down to fluke than anything failing to monitor reintroductions means you heavily limit what can be learnt from the exercise which also contributed to the high number of failed early attempts nowadays reintroductions are planned differently by which i mean they're planned properly with actual monitoring schemes and contingency plans put into place the most recent one as of recording this comes from a major european project called lifelinx which aims to bolster the genetic diversity of existing populations in central europe and italy the latest release was on the 14th of june and was translocated from the slovakian area the carpathians to developed mountains in croatia that was the 15th lynx released as part of this project but despite being the place where most translocated links are moved from the carpathians aren't some magical endless supply of links and those areas need supporting in their own right and that's where we come in together with our partners carpathia we plant trees in areas that were illegally logged to help restore this amazing ecosystem one of europe's last true wildernesses but we're not just replanting this summer we're also releasing an anti-poaching project to help carpathia's rangers protect the wildlife in these mountains which of course includes the carpathian lynx so if you think this kind of work is worth supporting then be sure to check out our website at mossy.earth we run a monthly membership that plants native trees in areas like the carpathians or iceland but crucially also funds rewilding projects such as supporting salmon populations in scotland or reintroducing red kites in spain we have a discord where you can chat with a team and app to track your impact and we also share our progress on instagram and of course here on youtube through highly detailed fantastically edited videos with sweet silky voice overs you can watch on mute if you want we have subtitles the membership starts at five pounds six euros or six dollars seventy five cents so it is cheap but it goes a long way to help rewired our planet now when looking at the future of the links one of the most common questions people raise is whether links are dangerous to people which i feel is certainly a fair question and one well worth looking into while eurasian links can in theory kill a person it's highly highly unlikely unless they're cornered or provoked for multiple reasons first and foremost because they'll rarely if ever come into contact with humans but with being shy nocturnal and hunting in forests they're also intelligent animals that will only pick fights they know they can win as mentioned earlier when lynx take down larger prey like deer they rely on hanging onto the neck where they can't be hit the average human however has no points on their body where they can't punch away a big cat and could definitely do serious damage if not kill it outright in the process of fighting off combine that with the fact that we're not even remotely like its usual prey and the lynx won't take that risk unless they're either directly threatened or suffering from rabies all of this has resulted in no documented human deaths from eurasian links and no accounts of any unprovoked attacks with that being said they do pose a threat to pets or livestock that wander into their territory and happen to be a similar size to their usual prey attacks on pets are rare and are usually on dogs in retaliation but it's still a risk livestock attacks are a bit more common particularly on sheep but this usually happens in places like norway that graze their sheep in forests and is not much of a concern for most other places humans and lynx can co-exist without issue providing we respect them as we would with any wild animal they may look like big kittens but they should be treated as the fluffy terminators that they are of course there are more factors that go into reintroductions and just assessing the danger of an animal so if you would like to learn more about the feasibility of reintroducing links to the uk then we recommend you watch this video by our friend rob from leave curious and if you simply enjoyed detail of link's links links there's a good chance you'll also be interested in the story of guilo gilo gillo so click here to find out about the return of the wolverine in europe until next time cheers

Channel: Mossy Earth

Views: 484,366

Keywords: Rewilding, Eurasian Lynx, Eurasian Lynx rewilding, reintroductions, Eurasian Lynx reintroductions, Eurasian Lynx UK, Lynx, European Lynx, Lynx conservation, conservation, European Lynx reintroduction, Eurasian Lynx conservation status, Eurasian Lynx IUCN, Balkan Lynx, Carpathians, Carpathian Lynx, Northern Lynx, Lynx in Europe, Caucasian Lynx, Are Lynx Dangerous, Can a Lynx kill a person, Do Lynx kill people, Eurasian Lynx dangerous, Are Lynx deadly

Id: V0W757D4jCs

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 27 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Unhappy_Body9368]

I recently discovered Mossy Earth and they have some banging videos. They’re just like Terra Mater.