Romania joins project to bring the lynx back to Germany’s Thuringian Forest

Ten lynxes from the Romanian Carpathians are to be captured and transferred to Germany in the following years in an effort to reintroduce and give this species a permanent future in the Thuringian Forest. Viorel, the first wild male lynx from Romania, was recently released into the forest.

As part of this project, a total of 10 lynxes from the hunting funds managed by the Suceava, Neamț, Bacău, and Vrancea Forestry Directorates will be captured and transferred to Germany by 2027, Romania’s forest management company Romsilva said. The initiative aims to reintroduce the predatory cat into the Thuringian Forest, which will contribute to the genetic restoration of the lynx population currently existing in three isolated and small population cores.

The first two lynxes were successfully reintroduced into the Thuringian Forest on May 15. One was Viorel, the male lynx from Romania, and the other was a female lynx named Frida, born in captivity in Germany.

“In Germany, the Thuringian Forest, with an area of approximately 2,200 square km, plays an important role in restoring the lynx population in central and western Europe. A stable population of lynx in the Thuringian Forest would connect two isolated populations in central and southern Germany and the Czech Republic and represent a major success for the colonization of other suitable habitats in Europe,” Romsilva said.

The lynx, which some call “the invisible hunter,” still has a stable home in Romania, in its mountains and forests. Read more about it here - Nature in Făgăraș Mountains: The lynx in Romania.

(Photo source: Facebook/Romsilva)