Every year the United Nations (UN) marks World Wildlife Day on the 3rd of March.
This year’s World Wildlife Day is dedicated to big cats under the theme ‘’Big cats – predators under threat’’.
As the lion is a symbol of Africa, the lynx (a small cat of a big value) is a precious symbol of the global natural heritage, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been warning.
The presence of the lynx, a wild cat that lives concealed, positively affects the entire ecosystem; its preservation in the Dinaric region is of great importance.
Therefore, two international projects are being implemented in Croatia in order to provide solutions to threats that endanger the survival of this cat.
Improving human coexistence with large carnivores in Europe is the main aim of the new international project LIFE EuroLargeCarnivores, which is being implemented in Croatia and Slovenia by the WWF Adria.
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zagreb, the University of Karlovac and the BIOM Association are implementing the LIFE Lynx project, within which the lynx from the Carpathians will be populated in Croatia and Slovenia in order to stop mating in kinship that endangers the survival of the entire population.
‘’The only hope to save the lynx on our territory is by the enrichment of the genetic material by bringing new individuals. The entire project team is happy that by stopping the extinction of the lynx is helping to preserve the overall biodiversity of the Dinaric forests’’, commented Tomislav Gomerčić, a professor from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zagreb.