Burni Zip – a new lynx fitted with a satellite tracking collar in Gorski Kotar Lynx tracking activities in the forests of Gorski Kotar continue in 2016. In the early morning hours of 1 April, a male lynx (Lynx lynx) was captured in the Burni Bitoraj mountain range. The animal weighs 20 kg and is estimated to be two years old. The lynx was caught using a cage trap and was released after being processed, measured and fitted with a GPS/GSM tracking collar that will monitor its movements for the next year. After that time, the collar will fall off automatically. But up till then, the data collected will provide us with detailed insight into the territory where the lynx will move about. We named the lynx Burni Zip: Burni, after the Burni Bitoraj mountain range where it was captured, and Zip, after the County’s slogan “Zeleno i plavo” (Green and Blue). In February 2015, a lynx called Goran Zip was also caught in the same region and monitored up to January 2016. Researchers of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Zagreb and the Polytech of Karlovac, the rangers of Public Institution Priroda and a worker of Hrvatske Šume (Croatian Forest Enterprise) took part in fitting the lynx with a tracking collar, which was procured by PI Priroda. PI Priroda is responsible for managing the Ecological Network NATURA 2000 in the County of Primorje and Gorski Kotar, and Gorski Kotar is the area targeted for the conservation of the lynx and other large carnivores (the bear and wolf) of national and European importance. In addition to using tracking collars, recently we have also begun to use camera traps to help monitor and identify individual lynxes. The photos taken by the camera traps confirm the presence of these enigmatic cats in our forests. Considering that the territory of a male lynx covers an average area of about 200 km², we are very eager to receive the first results of monitoring the movements of this rare and strictly protected species in the Republic of Croatia. Marko Modrić
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Javna ustanova "Priroda"
