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Sci­en­tists work­ing on the LIFE IBER­LINCE project have spent six years study­ing the hunt­ing behav­iour of the Iber­ian lynx (Lynx par­di­nus), reg­is­ter­ing a total of 40 attacks with 716 farm ani­mals killed. Their results indi­cate that, although the result­ing eco­nomic losses are not high, this behav­iour is on the rise, and it is there­fore nec­es­sary to estab­lish con­flict pre­ven­tion pro­grammes along­side the exist­ing con­ser­va­tion pro­grammes of this crit­i­cally endan­gered species.

Most stud­ies on depre­da­tion of live­stock in Spain have focused on wolves and lit­tle atten­tion has been given to this type of con­flict in smaller species.

Within the LIFE IBER­LINCE project, “Con­ser­va­tion and rein­tro­duc­tion of the Iber­ian lynx (Lynx par­di­nus) in Andalu­sia”, a team of sci­en­tists has spent six years mon­i­tor­ing lynxes’ hunt­ing habits in areas with nearby set­tle­ment. In the eight years since this ini­tia­tive began, the num­ber of lynxes in Spain has trebled.

“We have counted a total of 40 attacks on farm ani­mals, involv­ing 716 kills, in the area of Andújar-​Cardeña, one of the hubs — along with Doñana — in which mem­bers of this species in dan­ger of extinc­tion are cen­tred,” explains Ger­man Gar­rote, co-​author of the study and researcher on this project. “Although the major­ity of these attacks (78%) were car­ried out against poul­try, sheep depre­da­tion resulted in higher eco­nomic losses.”

“Quite pos­si­bly, when the lynx was present all over the penin­sula, these attacks were com­mon, but as they now have a very lim­ited dis­tri­b­u­tion and, until not so many years ago, they rarely came into con­tact with domes­tic ani­mals, we did not see as much con­flict. Now that the species is expand­ing again, it is reach­ing more inhab­ited areas,” the expert highlights.

Com­pen­sa­tion to farm­ers
Par­al­lel to its con­ser­va­tion pro­gramme, the group cre­ated a com­pen­sa­tion scheme to mit­i­gate the con­se­quences of the con­flict between humans and lynxes in this area. “It is about pay­ments for dam­ages to live­stock in areas where the attacks have occurred,” notes Garrote.

Eco­nom­i­cally, these dam­ages are not very sig­nif­i­cant in com­par­i­son with the money invested in their con­ser­va­tion. How­ever, the team has already begun to erect elec­tric fences to avoid attacks to sheep, with an ideal result.

“What we aimed with this study was to find out what the con­flict is, demon­strate that these con­flicts occur and work out how to solve them, in order to antic­i­pate prob­lems that might arise in the future with this species, which is colonis­ing more devel­oped areas, as hap­pens with the wolf, whose con­flict is much more gen­er­alised,” the researcher concludes.

(Source: SINC news release, 10.06.2013)