Doru, a four-year-old lynx from the Romanian Carpathians, has been released back into the wild in the Risnjak National Park in Croatia. Doru is the first lynx to be relocated as part of the LIFE Lynx project in order to strengthen the lynx population in the Dinarides.
Into freedom! Doru, at the moment of his release
© Vedran SlijepcevicAt the end of February, male lynx Doru wandered into a trap in the snowy mountain forests of the Carpathians. First of all he had to spend two months in quarantine. It was important to make sure Doru wouldn’t carry any diseases from his old territory to his new one. Just before his release, lynx conservationists from the international LIFE Lynx project, which is also supported by EuroNatur, transferred the handsome brush-eared animal to Croatia. Then, on 4 May, the time was right. Doru was taken to the Risnjak National Park in the Dinarides, fitted with a GPS transmitter and released back to freedom.
Doru is starting off an ambitious project: in the next few months, more lynxes from the stable Carpathian population will be relocated to Slovenia and Croatia. The lynx stocks there are small and genetically weak. The project, which is co-funded by the European Union, aims to help replenish the lynx gene pool in the northern Dinarides and link the isolated population there with other lynx populations.
Here you get more information about our projects protecting lynxes in Europe.