Status assessment of Eurasian lynx in Latvia linking genetics and demography—a growing population or a source–sink process?

Bagrade, Guna; Ruņģis, Dainis; Ornicāns, Aivars; Šuba, Jurģis; Žunna, Agrita; Howlett, Samantha Jane; Lūkins, Mārtiņš; Gailīte, Agnese; Stepanova, Alda; Done, Gundega; Gaile, Anita; Bitenieks, Krišs; Mihailova, Līga; Baumanis, Jānis; Ozoliņš, Jurijs

doi:10.1007/s13364-016-0279-8

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Second, there is a relatively consistent availability of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and other ungulate species in the HM region likely providing suitable conditions for the establishment and growth of a stable lynx population. Lynx are more sensitive to changes in habitats and prey abundance than other large carnivores, making both forest cover and availability of prey important factors in determining the likelihood of survival (Bagrade et al 2016;Schmidt et al 2011). This rapid demographic and spatial expansion confirms that reintroduction of captive born lynx is possible, which has important consequences for future reintroduction planning.…”

Section: Population Growth and Expansionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…This isolation is a major threat to the long-term viability of reintroduced lynx populations (Molinari-Jobin et al 2010). While there is considerable data on the genetic structure of autochtonous lynx populations in Europe including phylogeographic assessments (Gugolz et al 2008;Ratkiewicz et al 2012;Sindičić et al 2013a;Rodríguez-Varela et al 2016), Europe-wide population characterization (Rueness et al 2014;Ratkiewicz et al 2014;Schmidt et al 2011), fine-scale population structure (Sindičić et al 2013a;Bagrade et al 2016;Schmidt et al 2016;Holmala et al 2018) and non-invasive genetic monitoring (Davoli et al 2013;Krojerová-Prokešová et al 2018;Hollerbach et al 2018), such genetic assessment of reintroduced lynx populations is sparse (Bull et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The rise of a large carnivore population in Central Europe: genetic evaluation of lynx reintroduction in the Harz Mountains

et al. 2020

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Large carnivores have made a successful comeback across human-dominated landscapes in Central Europe. The Eurasian lynx, for instance, has been actively reintroduced in different regions. Genetic diversity is quickly eroding in these isolated, small populations, questioning the long-term success of lynx reintroductions. To track population development and genetic diversity in a reintroduced lynx population, we used microsatellite analysis and mtDNA haplotyping based on 379 samples collected during the initial 15 year period of lynx reintroduction in the Harz mountains National Park, Germany. The Harz lynx population shows higher genetic diversity relative to other lynx reintroductions, due to initial cross-breeding of divergent captive source lineages and a comparably high founder size. While the population shows significant population growth and spread into adjacent regions, genetic diversity is continiously declining. Expected heterozygosity values dropped from 0.63 after reintroduction (2006/2007) to 0.55 within a 10 year period. Despite this, the Harz lynx population is currently a viable component to an envisioned lynx metapopulation spanning across Central Europe. The ongoing genetic erosion in the Harz population along with a lack of geneflow from adjacent populations indicates that such connectivity is urgently needed to ensure long-term population persistence.

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Section: Population Growth and Expansionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise of a large carnivore population in Central Europe: genetic evaluation of lynx reintroduction in the Harz Mountains

et al. 2020

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“…Female lynx seem to disperse less frequently and for shorter distances than males, even though male-biased dispersal was not confirmed in some areas (Zimmermann et al 2005(Zimmermann et al , 2007Herrero et al 2020). Except for Northern Europe (Fennoscandia, Baltic states), where dispersal distances are generally longer (Samelius et al 2012;Bagrade et al 2016;Herrero et al 2020), there seem to be no published records about female dispersal longer than 100 km (see more details given in the supplementary material of the review of Bartoń et al (2019)). The reluctance of female lynx to disperse over longer distances, particularly in fragmented landscapes, thus reduces the species ability to colonise new areas (Port et al 2020).…”

Section: Factors Affecting Dispersalmentioning

confidence: 98%

Long-distance Eurasian lynx dispersal – a prospect for connecting native and reintroduced populations in Central Europe

et al. 2021

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Dispersal is a key process for the maintenance of intraspecific genetic diversity by ensuring gene flow within and between populations. Despite the ongoing expansion of large carnivores in Europe, lynx populations remain fragmented, isolated, and threatened by inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity. In the course of large carnivore monitoring in the Czech Republic, several biological samples of Eurasian lynx were collected outside the permanent occurrence of this species. Using microsatellite genotyping we identified these as four dispersing lynx males and applied multiple methods (Bayesian clustering in STRU CTU RE, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), frequency-based method in GENECLASS2, and machine-learning framework in assignPOP) to assign them to possible source populations. For this we used genotypes from five European lynx populations: the Bohemian-Bavarian-Austrian (N = 36), Carpathian (N = 43), Scandinavian (N = 20), Baltic (N = 15), and Harz (N = 23) population. All four dispersers were successfully assigned to different source populations within Europe and each was recorded at a distance of more than 98 km from the edge of the distribution of the source population identified. Such movements are among the longest described for lynx in Central Europe to this point. The findings indicate the ability of lynx males to disperse in human-dominated landscape thus facilitation of these movements via creation and/or protection of potential migratory corridors together with protection of dispersing individuals should be of high importance in conservation of this iconic predator in Central Europe.

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“…Since 1971, 15 reintroductions across eight European countries have involved over 170 Eurasian lynx individuals, but only five of these attempts are considered to be successful (Linnell et al, 2009). As a result, important lessons have been learnt, and a significant body of knowledge about the species' ecology, demography (Breitenmoser-Würsten et al, 2007;Bagrade et al, 2016;Jȩdrzejewski et al, 1996), dispersal behaviour (Samelius et al, 2012;Schmidt, 1998;Zimmermann et al, 2005), habitat requirements and use (Belotti et al, 2013;Filla et al, 2017;Podgórski et al, 2008;Rozylowicz et al, 2010;Zimmermann et al, 2007b) has been amassed. However, there is a particular need for tools that enable the synthesis of this knowledge and incorporate recent progress in dispersal ecology theory, in order to provide more reliable assessments of landscape suitability and inter-patch connectivity, and to increase the probability of future reintroduction successes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving reintroduction success in large carnivores through individual-based modelling: How to reintroduce Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) to Scotland

Ovenden

Palmer

Travis

et al. 2019

Biological Conservation

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Globally, large carnivores have been heavily affected by habitat loss, fragmentation and persecution, sometimes resulting in local extinctions. With increasing recognition of topdown trophic cascades and complex predator-prey dynamics, reintroductions are of growing interest for restoration of ecosystem functioning. Many reintroductions have however failed, in part due to poor planning and inability to model complex eco-evolutionary processes to give reliable predictions. Using the case study of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), a large predator being considered for reintroduction to Scotland, we demonstrate how an individual-based model that integrates demography with three distinct phases of dispersal (emigration, transfer and settlement) can be used to explore the relative suitability of three geographically-distant potential reintroduction sites, multi-site reintroductions and two founding population sizes. For a single-site reintroduction of 10 lynx, our simulation results show a clear hierarchy of suitability across all metrics. Reintroduction in the Kintyre Peninsula (west coast) consistently performed best, with a probability of population persistence at year 100 of 83%, and the Scottish component of Kielder Forest (southern Scotland) worst, with only a 21% chance of population persistence to year 100. Simultaneous two-site reintroduction in the Kintyre Peninsula and in Aberdeenshire (near the east coast) of 32 lynx gave a 96% persistence at 100 years. Our model was highly sensitive to survival, particularly of adults, highlighting this parameter's importance for reintroduction success. The results strongly indicate the potential viability of Eurasian lynx reintroduction to Scotland given the current cover of suitable woodland habitat. More generally, our work demonstrates how emerging modelling approaches incorporating increased realism in representing species' demography, ecology and dispersal can have high value for quick, inexpensive assessment of likely reintroduction success and for selection between alternative strategies.

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Status assessment of Eurasian lynx in Latvia linking genetics and demography—a growing population or a source–sink process?

Cited by 13 publications

References 33 publications

The rise of a large carnivore population in Central Europe: genetic evaluation of lynx reintroduction in the Harz Mountains

The rise of a large carnivore population in Central Europe: genetic evaluation of lynx reintroduction in the Harz Mountains

Long-distance Eurasian lynx dispersal – a prospect for connecting native and reintroduced populations in Central Europe

Improving reintroduction success in large carnivores through individual-based modelling: How to reintroduce Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) to Scotland

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