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Data from: Hunter-engaged monitoring of the Eurasian lynx during the reinforcement process

Fležar, Urša1; Krofel, Miha1; Bartol, Matej2; Černe, Rok2; Hočevar, Lan1; Trajbarič, Aleksander2; Hvala, Tilen3; Prostor, Maruša2; Stergar, Matija2; Aronsson, Malin4

Published Nov 25, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cnp5hqcgm

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Nov 25, 2025 version files 373.73 KB

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Abstract

Collaborative wildlife monitoring programs involving citizen scientists are an efficient approach for surveying large areas. In Europe, hunters play an important role in wildlife monitoring and act as crucial stakeholders in large carnivore conservation. The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), an elusive felid, is a species of conservation concern in Europe. In Slovenia, the lynx was exterminated and later reintroduced in 1973, but the population has declined over the past decades. A reinforcement program was initiated in 2017, translocating lynx from the Carpathian population to improve the critically endangered status of the Dinaric population. The reinforcement was coupled with an intensive monitoring programme, involving local hunters as key participants. In this study, we show how the collaboration between wildlife managers, researchers, and hunters resulted in a robust assessment of the lynx population at a national level over five years. Questionnaires distributed to hunting clubs and chance observations were used to define the expected lynx distribution and guide the extent of systematic camera trapping surveys, involving between 63 and 101 hunters each year. In southern Slovenia, the core of the lynx population, lynx density doubled during the reinforcement period (from 0.66 to 1.30 lynx/100 km²). In north-western Slovenia, where a stepping-stone population in the Alps was established in 2021, the number of lynx increased to 7. Furthermore, all three translocated females reproduced, which represents the first confirmed lynx reproduction in the Slovenian Alps in over 150 years. We discuss the motivation behind the hunters’ contribution to the data collection process and the implications of this collaboration. We highlight the importance of maintaining the collaboration and their support for lynx conservation. This study serves as an example for large-scale collaborative monitoring of a recovering population undergoing intensive conservation measures with promising results, involving crucial stakeholders as citizen scientists.