Palmero Stefano, Smith Adam F, Kudrenko Svitlana, Gahbauer Martin, Dachs Dominik, Weingarth-Dachs Kirsten, Kashpei Irina, Shamovich Dmitry, Vyshnevskiy Denys, Borsuk Oleksandr, Korepanova Kateryna, Bashta Andriy-Taras, Zhuravchak Rostyslav, Fenchuk Viktar, Heurich Marco
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Management, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany.
Department of National Park Monitoring and Animal Management Bavarian Forest National Park Grafenau Germany.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Nov 9;13(11):e10688. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10688. eCollection 2023 Nov.
The Eurasian lynx is a large carnivore widely distributed across Eurasia. However, our understanding of population status is heterogeneous across their range, with some populations isolated that are at risk of reduced genetic variation and a complete lack of information about others. In many European countries, Eurasian lynx are monitored through demographic studies crucial for their conservation and management. Even so, there are only rough and fragmented population assessments from Ukraine and Belarus, despite strict protection in both countries and their importance for lynx connectivity across Europe. We monitored lynx from October 2020 to March 2021 and used camera trapping in combination with spatial capture-recapture (SCR) methods in a Bayesian framework to provide the first SCR density estimation of three lynx populations across Ukraine and Belarus, including the Ukrainian Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, southern Belarus and the Ukrainian Carpathians. Our density estimates varied within our study areas ranging from 0.45 to 1.54 individuals/100 km. This work provides a substantial scientific component to the overall understanding of lynx conservation for a region where only broad information is available and opens the doors for further large-scale monitoring and trend assessments. The crucial information we provide can greatly enhance the range-wide assessments of the status of this protected species. We also discuss the implications for Eurasian lynx conservation, despite the geopolitical realities impacting species monitoring in the region. Our work serves as a baseline, not only for future conservation interventions but also to evaluate the effects of disturbance and threats to these protected populations.
欧亚猞猁是一种广泛分布于欧亚大陆的大型食肉动物。然而，我们对其在整个分布范围内的种群状况的了解并不一致，一些种群处于隔离状态，面临着遗传变异减少的风险，而对于其他种群则完全缺乏相关信息。在许多欧洲国家，通过对欧亚猞猁进行种群统计学研究来监测它们，这对其保护和管理至关重要。即便如此，尽管乌克兰和白俄罗斯两国都对猞猁进行了严格保护，且它们对于欧洲猞猁的连通性具有重要意义，但目前仅有来自这两个国家的粗略且零散的种群评估。我们在2020年10月至2021年3月期间对猞猁进行了监测，并在贝叶斯框架下将相机诱捕与空间捕获-再捕获（SCR）方法相结合，以提供乌克兰和白俄罗斯境内三个猞猁种群（包括乌克兰切尔诺贝利禁区、白俄罗斯南部和乌克兰喀尔巴阡山脉）的首个SCR密度估计值。我们的密度估计值在研究区域内有所不同，范围为每100平方公里0.45至1.54只个体。这项工作为全面了解一个仅有宽泛信息的地区的猞猁保护提供了重要的科学依据，并为进一步的大规模监测和趋势评估打开了大门。我们提供的关键信息能够极大地加强对这种受保护物种状况的全范围评估。我们还讨论了尽管地缘政治现实影响了该地区物种监测，但对欧亚猞猁保护的影响。我们的工作不仅作为未来保护干预措施的基线，也用于评估干扰和威胁对这些受保护种群的影响。
