Recovery of Eurasian Lynx in Europe: What Part has Reintroduction Played?

Linnell, John D. C.; Breitenmoser, Urs; Breitenmoser‐Würsten, Christine; Oddén, John; Arx, Manuela von

doi:10.1002/9781444312034.ch4

Cited by 64 publications

(60 citation statements)

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“…Among large carnivores, wolves appear as one of the most conflictful species wherever they occur and overlap with herding activities, especially with sheep breeding. Nowadays, in many countries, either rural land abandonment or conservation legislation or both of them are leading to the recovery of large carnivores in multiple-use landscapes (Linnell et al 2001, Falcucci et al 2007, Linnell et al 2009) and accordingly many conflicts are currently increasing in several countries (Mech 1970, Fritts et al 1997, Bangs et al 1998, Breitenmoser 1998, Treves and Karanth 2003.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

Lescureux

Linnell

2013

Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice

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The relationship between humans and wolves is often associated with conflicts strongly linked with livestock breeding activities. However, as conflicts are often more intense than expected considering the magnitude of their economic impact, some authors have suggested that these conflicts are disconnected from reality and are mainly due to persistence of negative perceptions from previous times. To the contrary, we suggest that local people's perceptions are often linked to wolf behaviour through direct observations and interactions. We conducted ethnological investigations on human-wolf relationships in countries belonging to former USSR (Kyrgyzstan) and former Yugoslavia (Republic of Macedonia), subjected to rapid social changes impacting both livestock husbandry and hunting practices. Our studies revealed that changes in hunting and husbandry practices have led to modifications in the socio-environmental context and to the nature of wolf-human interactions. These changes have resulted in an increased vulnerability of local people to wolf damage and a concomitant reduced acceptance for wolves. All these changes contribute to changes in the perception of the wolf and to an increase in the perception of conflicts, even in countries where humans and wolves have continuously coexisted. Our study shows the dynamic nature of human-wolf relationships, the necessity to understand the broader socio-economical context in human-wildlife conflicts, and the challenge pastoralists are facing in a changing world.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

Lescureux

Linnell

2013

Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice

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“…However, intense persecution, prey extermination and habitat conversion led to their near extermination in the nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries (Breitenmoser 1998;Linnell et al 2009Linnell et al , 2010. As a result of the eradication efforts, all carnivore populations experienced their smallest population sizes and range contraction during early to mid-twentieth century.…”

Section: To the Edge Of Extinctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Large Mammals Back: Large Carnivores in Europe

Boitani

Linnell

2015

Rewilding European Landscapes

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The last century has seen a dramatic reversal in the status of large carnivores in Europe. A suite of co-occurring factors has permitted a large-scale recovery of most populations. We currently recognise 10 populations of each species, most of which are transboundary in nature. The sizes of these populations vary from some tens to many thousand, with current estimates being around 17,000 bears, 10,000 wolves and 10,000 lynx in Europe (excluding Russia). As the situation moves from averting extinction to planning recovery it is logical to ask how far the recovery can go, and what our conservation goals should be, especially in light of the emerging rewilding discourse. For a variety of ecological, practical and strategic reasons, it seems unlikely that restoring "wilderness" or "natural ecological processes" (in the sense that human activity and influence are excluded) will serve as general models for large carnivore conservation on a large scale. We suggest a focus on developing a "coexistence" model that aims to create a sustainable interaction between humans and large carnivores by encouraging conservation of these species in very large areas of the European landscape, encouraging the development of a wide range of ecological processes, including predation and scavenging, while accepting that human influence on all trophic levels is pervasive, legitimate, necessary and often even desirable. This constitutes a desire to create a new form of relationship between humans and wildness that has never existed before, and therefore does not fall within the conventional meanings of the rewilding paradigm.

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“…Large carnivore depredation on livestock and big game species occurs in most European regions, particularly in eastern and northern areas (e. g. Odden et al 2002Odden et al , 2006Kovarik et al 2014). Over the last decades, populations of large carnivores have recovered in many European areas, either because of natural expansion or reintroduction programs (e. g. Linnell et al 2009). This has brought a new source of ungulate mortality (i. e. depredation) in some places (e. g. Nowak et al 2011), potentially creating new conflicts (see examples below).…”

Section: Wildlife Impacts Leading To Conservation Conflictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been reintroduced to several of these areas (Linnell et al 2009), particularly in central Europe, where it became extinct in the past. The latest estimate for the total number of lynx in Europe is 9,000 (Silva et al 2013).…”

Section: Wildlife Species Involved In Conservation Conflictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation conflicts involving mammals in Europe

Delibes‐Mateos¹

2015

Therya

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Introduction:In recent times, conflicts involving wildlife have increased in importance and magnitude. Conservation conflicts occur when two or more parties with strongly held opinions clash over conservation objectives, and when one party is perceived to assert its interest at the expense of another. Conservation conflicts usually emerge from "wildlife impacts", defined as circumstances where people, consciously or unconsciously, negatively impact wildlife, or alternatively where wildlife negatively impacts the well-being or livelihoods of people or biodiversity. In Europe, the most frequent and intense conservation conflict associated with the management of mammals is likely that involving predators. For example, large carnivores depredate on livestock and game species, but at the same time these are flagship-species for European nature conservation. Therefore, conflicts about how these species should be managed emerge frequently. The management of overabundant ungulates that negatively impact natural vegetation as well as that of small mammals that damage crops also lead to frequent clashes between stakeholders in Europe. The global conservation status of most conflictive European mammals is rather good. However, some of their populations are threatened, at least partially by illegal killing and poaching. From this perspective, efforts are needed to mitigate conservation conflicts in these areas. In addition, promoting the investigation of conservation conflicts that incorporates multidisciplinary approaches is essential to increase the understanding of such conflicts and ultimately to mitigate them.

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Recovery of Eurasian Lynx in Europe: What Part has Reintroduction Played?

Cited by 64 publications

References 0 publications

The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

Bringing Large Mammals Back: Large Carnivores in Europe

Conservation conflicts involving mammals in Europe

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