TARVISIO (UDINE) (ITALPRESS) – Forest Carabinieri from the Biodiversity Grouping, in collaboration with the Carabinieri CITES Grouping and the Veterinary Service of the General Command, have released the female lynx LUNA in the Tarvisio Forest as part of the ULyCA (Urgent Lynx Conservation Action) project. With this new female, the territorial male FLORI is allowed to mate with an unrelated female, thus increasing the genetic diversity of lynx in the area. In the southeastern Italian Alps, three male lynx are currently monitored, but no females.
All of the lynx currently present in the southeastern Italian Alps, the Carabinieri Forestali note, were born from lynx reintroduced as part of the LIFE Lynx project. From 2021 to 2023, six lynx were released in the southeastern Slovenian Alps to create a “gateway population” capable of expanding and linking with the Dinaric population. In addition, five lynx were released in the southeastern Italian Alps as part of the ULyCA project. The core area of this new passerelle population is in the Slovenian Julian Alps. Four of the six females released have successfully reproduced. At least 16 young have been born in seven litters.
LUNA, the Carabinieri Foresters point out, is strengthening the still small presence of lynx in the southeastern Alps. She is a young female born in May 2023 at a specialized feline biopark in Hütscheroda, central Germany, where she was specially prepared for release into the wild.
She will potentially have her first litter in 2025. Luna is also the eighth lynx released as part of Linking Lynx, a project that brings together experts from zoos, wildlife parks, and reintroduction projects with the common goal of linking existing lynx populations in Central Europe so that exchange between individual populations in the future can take place through natural dispersal: linking isolated lynx populations to each other is extremely important for the long-term survival of the species in Central Europe.
ULyCA (Urgent Lynx Conservation Action) is a project of the Carabinieri Forestali with the support of the Lince Italia Project of the University of Turin, which is in charge of the technical-scientific and logistical aspects. Very important is the support received from WWF Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, the Hunting and Lynx Working Group, as well as the Biodiversity Service of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the regional veterinary authority (ASUFC). A wide network of collaborations led to today’s release: the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) and the Deutscher Wildgehegeverband collaborate with reintroduction and release projects as part of the Linking Lynx network-and LUNA was chosen as part of this joint effort to conserve the Carpathian lynx metapopulation.
– press office photo Carabinieri Forestali –
(ITALPRESS).
The Luna lynx has arrived in the Tarvisio Forest.
