The Balkan lynx team on 10 June organised their regular annual meeting with members of the monitoring network, which is also the last one in the third phase of the Balkan Lynx Recovery Programme (BLRP). The event took place in Vevchani on Mount Jablanica, where last winter an opportunistic camera-trapping session and a lynx GPS-collaring operation took place. Participants mostly included hunters and game wardens active within the home range of the Balkan lynx, with somewhat lesser number of veterinarians, farmers and reporters.
Programme content and meeting goals aimed at highlighting the benefits from cooperation between the lynx team and members of the monitoring network resulting in a successful camera-trapping session on Mount Jablanica. Results from the session along with the remaining relevant BLRP 3 activities were presented and discussed. Following the presentation, monitoring network members expressed their concern and pointed out the problems which lately seem to be the upswing – clearcut logging and habitat fragmentation ensuing from the constructions of the new highway Gostivar-Kichevo-Ohrid; and deployment of traps by poachers, which are unselective, thus being able to trap any animal larger than hare, and lethal too.
Before the conclusion of the meeting a training workshop was announced intended for the members of the monitoring network concerning the use of a free software for the purpose of monitoring the Balkan lynx and its prey. The workshop will probably take place during project’s next phase.
