Outdoor Perspectives

It’s no secret that Latvia has one of the biggest populations of European lynx (Lynx lynx) in Europe (counting several hundred individuals). However, until recently, this species has been poorly studied, and the first studies (started in mid-1990s) involved examination of harvested animals (sex and age, diet, parasites etc. - basically all kind of information one can obtain from a dead animal).

A captive lynx, taken in the Highlands Wildlife Centre, Scotland

However the most important questions, from the point of view of management and conservation, remained unanswered, e.g., how big the home range of lynx in Latvia is, what their predation rates are etc. Radio-telemetry is the first thing that pops into mind when planning such a study, and an international Norwegian-Baltic-Polish project started in 2003 and financed by the Research Council of Norway was the first step towards this goal.All the necessary preparations were made and starting from autumn 2004, we were ready to try to capture and radio-collar lynx for the first time in Latvia. However, lynx obviously held different views and were not too eager to get captured. I don’t blame them - having a radio-collar around your neck and no privacy whatsoever from then on would put off even the most co-operative animal.

And the winter-long game of trying to outwit the big cat started. At first, Kemeri National Park was chosen as a study area. Box traps were made and put out into the forest in places where lynx were likely to pass. From previous years’ snow-tracking we knew that the territory of the park and its surroundings are sparsely populated by lynx but lynx tracks were seen here, so it was worth trying.

However, snow-tracking depends on having snow in the first place. And last winter, snow cover appeared only in January 2004. And then it snowed almost every second day, making it virtually impossible to find fresh tracks of a species that is not at all that common in this area.

After a month of cruising forest roads in an attempt to find tracks, it was obvious that the area of the national park is perhaps in the very periphery of one lynx male, living mainly outside the park. The chance of him encountering the box traps was so slim that the decision was taken to move to an area with the higher lynx density.

Lynx tracks spotted in the snow

A search party was sent to NW Latvia and - finally! - there was an area where lynx were common, leaving tracks everywhere. A forest massif near a coastal village Roja contained 4-5 lynx at least, which was confirmed by tracks after every fresh snowfall. Lynx use forest roads a lot and in the areas with high lynx density it is no problem to find lynx tracks.

Interestingly, lynx and wolves often have the same rendezvous sites, marking the same trees or stones (but of course it’s done at different times as wolves can present a danger to lynx). Two box traps were set up in that forest in places regularly visited by lynx. We also kept tracking them in order to find fresh lynx kill and set up traps there.

Once, a roe deer (the most common lynx prey in Latvia) killed by a lynx was found. It was found by a local woman, looking for antlers in the forest, who actually saw the lynx sitting on its kill and snarling and hissing at her. The frightened lady reported this to the forestry office and a colleague went there to set up a trap. He spent two nights there waiting for a lynx to return to its kill. And both nights lynx came and dragged the carcass away through the only side not covered by traps.

This is how we learnt an important message - always pin the carcass to the ground so that the predator cannot drag it away without getting captured. However, this failure only made us more enthusiastic about trying again and again. We spent days and weeks cruising forest roads looking for fresh tracks, identifying their regular crossing places and paths.

The old barn frequented by the lynx

We set up traps on frozen streams, which are used by lynx as convenient paths. Box traps were set up and checked every day. All without any success. Until one day, on 17 March, we got a phone call from a local assistant, who’s duty it was to check box traps, that there is an adult lynx in one of the traps. Since this event was going to be filmed by the national TV and photographed by journalists we wanted to make sure it was indeed a lynx and not a badger or some other animals. But the man was an old hunter and confirmed that it was a lynx, no problem. The big chase started. Everyone rushed from their offices to the first captured lynx.

When we opened the top window of the box trap, a pair of yellow eyes looked at us accompanied by a deep growl. If the lynx got in during the night, it must have been rather annoyed by such a long confinement, as the rescue party (or in the lynx’s perspective - its worst nightmare) arrived by 2pm only. During that time, the lynx had enough time to show its frustration by destroying a wooden ledge (part of the trigger mechanism), which had to be totally replaced later.

The animal was darted through the small window and after 5 minutes it was happily asleep, while the researchers started their work of putting the collar on, measuring, weighing, taking blood samples etc. It was a female who weighed 15.4kg and was at least 2-3 years old. There is a hope she will have kittens later in the year and we will be able to find out their number and sex. Lynx not only use forest roads, but they also are not afraid of walking near isolated farms in the forest, or using piles of freshly cut trees as their watch points.

The tranquilised female getting checked out and radio-collared

As long as lynx are not too intensively hunted, they are not that shy as it is commonly believed. Our first lynx was captured in a box trap set up 10m from a forest road next to a ruined farmhouse. This ruin was frequently visited by lynx, which not only walked around it but even got inside through window frames or climbed the roof, jumping down on the other side. Probably, it helped to capture the animal as it was used to human-made structures and did not perceive the trap as something alien.After the lynx was released it started moving in a NW direction, as if trying to get as far as possible from the capture site. During the first two days after the capture, she moved some 8 km (in the straight line) to the north-west. And it was not the end of her tour. She later moved even further, some 15km in the straight line, crossing a river and a big asphalt road, where she finally settled in a big forest massif. Most likely, she just moved to the other side of her home range.

Her present movements are already in a much bigger area than the local hunters predicted, and more radio-tracking should provide more interesting data. And of course, we also hope to capture some more lynx (wolf captures are planned for next winter). There is one simple conclusion - capturing wild animals might be a hard task, requiring weeks and months of fruitless work when you swear how foolish you were when you chose the path of being a wildlife biologist.

However, this frustration is well cured by the feeling you get when actually capturing an animal. It gives the impetus to continue. And hours spent in the forest are often very interesting, allowing you to see something you could hardly hope to see. E.g., my last chance encounter of that sort was when I was radio-tracking this female lynx.

Suddenly there was a wolf on a forest road in front of my four-wheel drive. We looked at each other for some 20 seconds maybe and then the wolf disappeared in the forest. Short but memorable encounters like that make it worth to spend hours in snow and rain, getting stuck on muddy roads etc. And you know there is another surprise awaiting you on some yet unknown path.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Zoology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.