BALKAN LYNX
he has only in Macedonia
Less than a hundred animals of its kind should there be more: With photo traps researchers the rare Balkan lynx are on the trail. From Roland Knauer
A picture of the Balkan lynx, published by the Macedonian Ecological Society.
Photo: MES
Photo: MES
happens a large animal the way, solves it from both cameras. In the pictures, the Albanian scientists hoped to Spase Shumka from the University of Tirana and the German conservationists find deer, chamois and bears, to discover one of the rarest carnivores in the world, the Balkan lynx Lynx lynx martinoi.
of this subspecies of the Eurasian lynx Pets are not a hundred more have disappeared. They all live in the mountains, where the border between Albania and its neighbors, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia. Just as the border between the states of NATO and the Warsaw Pact and that limit was formerly part of the "Iron Curtain" that once separated the isolated Albania from Yugoslavia.
The already difficult to access mountain were sealed off on both sides of the border troops also almost hermetically. This tape remained relatively untouched nature that ran around to Albania. Euro Natural Managing Schwaderer was obvious that the Balkan lynx only here, could have survived on the border with Albania. Hunters and conservationists from the mountain farmers reported ear-called also brush predator in the forests of the region. And sometimes a lynx run over by a car.
How many of the rare animals had survived no one knew until the spring of 2008, local conservationists, the Swiss large carnivore research organization Kora and € nature, supported by the Swiss Conservation Foundation Mava in Mavrovo National Park on the Macedonian side of 64 cameras setups. In March and April were groping lynx 29 times in the photo traps.
Because the animal is photographed from both sides, specialists can different individuals by characteristics such as the drawing of the coat also keep them apart. "Five to seven lynx live therefore, in the study area, with around 400 square kilometers, half the size of Berlin," said Schwaderer. This was clear: the Balkan lynx had survived.
stretched the specialists will then wait for the results delivered in March and April 2009, similar photo traps in Shebenik-Jablanica-National Park, according to proposals from € nature of its Albanian partner organization PPNEA (Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania) on the Albanian page was set up - a financial support from Lufthansa. The result was devastating: Not a single lynx fell into the photo traps, the batteries because of violent Snowfall, however, could not be changed regularly.
deer and mountain goats eradicated
Obviously live on the Albanian side that is much less than lynx in Macedonia. The reason for think we know the hydrology and biodiversity Professor Spase Shumka, who runs a sideline for PPNEA projects: To the isolated Albania to supply energy, were cut down sharply since the 1970s the forests. Thus, the habitat disappeared for the most important prey of the lynx, the deer.
1997, when the rule during a popular revolt broke down completely, gave poaching deer and chamois the rest: They exterminated the animals in Shebenik-Jablanica-National Park either completely or almost completely. Until these animals migrate from Macedonia again, it will probably take several years. In the photo, in any event were only two of these typical lynx prey. For the Balkan lynx, there are the Albanian National Park to bite that is currently very limited.
Another photo monitoring in the spring of 2010 will show whether one or the other lynx from Macedonia with time off for Albania investigated.
0 comments:
Post a Comment