Abstract
We studied diet and prey preferences of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) inhabiting south-east Poland, based on kills found during GPS-GSM telemetry and opportunistic winter tracking. Among 64 lynx kills were roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) (91%), red deer (Cervus elaphus) (3%) and brown hare (Lepus europaeus) (6%). From the ungulate community, lynx selected roe deer (D = 0.845) and avoided all other ungulates. We recorded one case of surplus and two cases of parallel killing. Lynx visited the same killed roe deer on average for 2.3 days, and for up to six days when surplus or parallel killing occurred. High numbers of the roe deer in south-east Poland supports the persistence of the lynx, but we urge managers to take under consideration food requirements of the lynx when planning game management.
Highlights
Historically present in the whole country (Bieniek et al 1998), and strictly protected since 1995, at the start of the 21st century the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx had the status of a near threatened species in Poland according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species criteria (Głowaciński 2002)
After two decades of strict protection the range of lynx in Poland still roughly mirrored the situation at the beginning of the century, with only a few individuals reproducing in central Poland and several sporadically recorded in the western part of the country (Mysłajek et al 2019, Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection 2021)
Among wild ungulates hunted by lynx, the roe deer clearly prevailed over the red deer (96.8% vs. 3.2%)
Summary
Historically present in the whole country (Bieniek et al 1998), and strictly protected since 1995, at the start of the 21st century the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx had the status of a near threatened species in Poland according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species criteria (Głowaciński 2002). A low population status stimulated lynx reintroductions into the Kampinos National Park in central Poland (Böer et al 1995) and reinforcement of local populations in NapiwodaRamuki and Pisz forests (north-eastern Poland), with individuals born in captivity or brought from Estonia (Jakimiuk 2015). In 2019 a lynx reintroduction project based on captive-bred individuals started, with 61 individuals having been released in north-west Poland up to the beginning of 2021. This project, is still in its early phase so it is not yet possible to evaluate its effectiveness (Western Pomeranian Naturalists Society 2021)
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