The occurrence of the lynx in the Carpathian Mountains (south-eastern Poland) according to questionnaire data

Abstract

The occurrence of the lynx Felis lynx Linnaeus, 1758 was estimated in 1986 in 342 districts of the Polish part of the Carpathian region on the basis of questionnaires distributed to the managements of hunting districts and national parks and to a group of randomly chosen hunters. The tendencies of the changes in the size of the lynx population were also evaluated for the decade 1976- 1986. The lynx was permanently present in 102 of the studied areas and transiently in 72. The territory under study comprises the Carpathians proper and the eastern part of the foothills. In the eastern part of this region a decrease of the lynx population was noted in 30 districts, and an increase only in one. On the other hand, in the western part of the studied territory there was an increase in 10 districts, in 5 the lynx appeared for the first time, and only in 3 did its population diminish.