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 Lynx are the largest of the four lynx 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 lynx prey on
can do serious damage in a fair fight, like Wild Boar, Red Fox or Martens,
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 Roe Deer
which are more or less the same size as them.
But they've 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 on to 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 recemented 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 lynx
four of which can be found in Europe.
If you're wondering which one got unlucky, that would be the Northern Lynx
which ended up with the trinomial name
Lynx lynx. lynx
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 lynx left
compared to an estimated 60 to 120 Balkan lynx,
which is the rarest of the subspecies and is considered critically endangered.
Generally speaking though, both the population 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
ten animals, believed to have been taken from the wild population in the Carpathians, were released.
By 2007, that population had expanded
to an estimated 70 individuals, with their territory now covering
7000 kilometres squared on both the Swiss and French sides of the mountain range.
It's quite unusual that this attempt was actually successful
as the Lynx 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 lynx 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 lynx 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 LIFE Lynx, 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 of the Carpathians to Velebit mountains in Croatia.
That was the 15th Lynx released as part of this project.
But despite being the place where most translocated Lynx are moved from
the Carpathians aren't some magical, endless supply of lynx
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've 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, an 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 voiceovers.
You can watch on mute if you want, we have subtitles. (hi)
The membership starts at £5, €6 or $6.75.
So it is cheap, but it goes a long way to help rewild our planet.
Now, when looking at the future of the Lynx, one of the most common questions people raise.
is whether Lynx are dangerous to people
which I feel was certainly a fair question and one well worth looking into.
While Eurasian lynx 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.
What with being shy, nocturnal 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 it off.
Combine that with the fact that we're not even remotely like its usual prey
and a Lynx won't take that risk unless it's either directly threatened or suffering from rabies
All of this has resulted in no documented human deaths
from Eurasian lynx 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 fluffy terminators that they are.
Of course, there are more factors
that go into reintroductions than just assessing the danger of an animal.
If you would like to learn more about the feasibility of reintroducing lynx to the UK,
then we recommend you watch this video by our friend Rob from Leave Curious
and if you simply enjoyed the tale of Lynx lynx. lynx,
there's a good chance you'll also be interested in the story of Gulo gulo. gulo
So click here to find out about the return of the Wolverine in Europe.
Until next time. Cheers.