Status of the Norwegian Lynx

By Rita Ramberg Nilsen

Introduction

The goal of this essay has been to summarize the current status of the Norwegian lynx (Lynx lynx). I have tried to emphasize the different views held by the different groups of people who are currently shaping the lynx future, and such an attempt can never do any of the parties full justice. For this I apologize.

Please note that all English names of departments, organizations etc. except WWF and MD are my own translations, as well as paragraph in italics.

Concervationists vs. The Authorities

Between 1996 and 2003, the Norwegian Lynx populatian decreased by 35%, from

500-600 individuals in 1996, to 300-350 animals in 2003. In spite of this, what was seen by conservationist organizations, including WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) as being too high culling quotas were given. In the hunting year 2003 (hunting season from Febr. 1^st.- April 30^th.) the quota issued by Norwegian authorities was for 85 individuals.

At this stage, Norway had no national conservation management strategy concerning lynx. Culling quotas were based on uncertain population estimates for each county, and were given by two so called lynx committees, one situated in northern Norway and one in eastern Norway.

Norwegian WWF made a demand to the Norwegian Ministry for the Enviroment (Miljøverndepartementet MD) for the 2003 quota to be reduced by half, that no reserve quotas were to be given, and that no females with cubs were to be culled. They in part backed this demand by the recomendations of the Swedish Enviromental Department (Det Svenske Naturvårdsverket), who, based on swedish research, claimed that around

1 000 individuals, among them 200 reproducing females, were needed to stabilize a lynx population on a long term basis.

The reply from MD was that this matter would be seriously considered when a new State

Proposal for Predator Policy (Rovviltmeldingen) was to be submitted to the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) by the end of 2003.

The previous Predator Policy was dated 1997, giving the following recommendations:

no reproducing populations of lynx should be allowed to establish themselves in the following counties: Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane... (these are areas where sheepfarming is substantial- my comment)...and no viable population should be allowed to establish itself in Vest-Agder, hence Aust-Agder should be bufferzone for the lynx population towards the west, with culling quotas higher than population growth rate.

Also, it recommended that northern parts of the country should be free of lynx.

In 2000 a national surveillance program for monitoring the large predators was launched. It has a budget of 5-6 mill. NOK/ year. Main responsibility lies with the Office for the Administration of Natural Resources (Direktoratet for Naturforvaltning DN), while the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning NINA) is responsible for methods of collecting and processing data.

Field registration are done in part by the the Hunter- and Fishermanfederation of Norway (Norges Jeger- og Fiskerforbund). They include registrations of family groups, cubs less than 1 year old, and also dead cubs. Both investigations of random track- and sighting-reports and systematic search for family groups is used.

Certain distance-rules based on data concerning movements and territory size of individual groups marked with radiotrensmitters in five different areas (habitats) of Scandinavia have been developed in order to differentiate between groups and to determine the total minimum population number.

In the winther of 2002 a supplemental surveillance started based on registration of tracks along a set of given 3 km. long index lines. These lines are followed on newly fallen snow every winter before the hunting season starts.

Other NINA projects include RoSa -Predators and Society (Rovvilt og Samfunn), and the Lynx and deer project (Gaupeprosjektet) which is a part of RoSa.

On Dec. 12^th 2003, the State Report number 15 (Rovviltmeldingen; Statlig melding nr. 15 (2003-2004) ) was accepted by the Norwegian Parliament.

Although this report is similar in some of its contents to the one of 1997, there are certain changes. More emphasis is put on minimizing the predator/ farmer conflict through various measures. This conflict has been a controversial basis of quite hard debate in Norway over recent years. Making predators less of a threat to animals grazing on pastures away from the farm by better surveillance of herds (dogs, humans, lamas!..) and also subsidizing early slaugther of animals like sheep (i.e. in the spring , before they are sent away from the farm to graze) are some of the measures outlined in the report.

A more coordinated monitoring of the lynx is also proposed. The NINA projects will be continued, and by Apr. 1^st. 2005 the function of the two lynx committees will be taken over by six regional ones.

The proposal population size for Norway is given as 65 litters of cubs/ year (the 2003 value was 45 litters/ year). This would constitute 18% of the total Scandinavian population. In comparison, Swedens proposed population is 300 litters/ year!

To reduce conflicts between people and predators, programs like Living with predators (Leve med rovdyr) and Knowledge about predators (Rovviltkunnskap) are carried out in primary schools in areas where there are a lot of predators, in order to increase knowledge about the large predators and through this increase the acceptance of their presence.

So what do the farmers think?

The different farmers organizations have not been very enthusiastic about the 2003 report, claiming that their needs have not been taken into consideration at all.

Unfortunately I havent been able to find figures on how many farm animals that are killed by lynx each year, I only know that wolves are responsible for more farm animal deaths than are lynx.

32 000 farms in Norway have animals grazing on pastures not on the farm (e.g. in the mountains and forests...); these include 2.1 mill. sheep, 236 000 cattle, 71 000 goats and

6 000 horses. In addition to this , approximately 300 000 sheep are kept on home pastures (i.e. land belonging to and in vincinity of the farm), the entire grazing season. Most applications for refunds for farm animals killed by predators are concerning sheep on pastures away form the farm, which is why I focus on this species. The large herbivores are less prone to attack. Interestingly enough, goats are thought to be less susceptible to predator attacks since they are grouped together on a regular basis, especially at night

The tradition of letting sheep graze freely during summer, with regular supervision by the farmers was developed in the 18^th century. During this period the predator population was small or non-existing. It should be mentioned that it is by and large up to the farmer how often he goes looking for the animals on summer pasture. The Law on Protection of Animals (Dyrevernloven) does however hold farmers accountable for the fate of the animals.

Are the hunters happy?

Not really...In short, they are worried that more predators will mean less game (elk, reindeer, deer etc.), which in turn means less income.

Research throughout Scandinavia has showed illegal culling to be the major cause of death for adult lynx marked with radiotransmitters. In Hedemark county an estimated 5.8% of the marked individuals are culled illegaly.

The male lynx Tor shot illegally. Photo: Jan Wilberg/SNO

The different lynx reserch-programs have marked in all 147 individuals between 1993 and 2002. Illegal culling is thought to have killed 10-15% of these. Cause of death varies from traps, snares to shooting. And as far as I know you have to be a licenced hunter to own a gun in

Norway

(with a few exceptions, of course)...

In the 2004 legal culling, the quota for the entire country was set to 50 lynx. 35 individuals were killed, 12 of these were females.

And we- the people...?

Peter Kabai provided a link for a scientific paper entitled Patterns of selfreported fear towards large carnivores among the Norwegian public. Since this article is available at the Wildlife Ecology website, I will not go into details. Those interested can find it there!

Sources:

Direktoratet for Naturforvaltning: www.dirnat.no

Norsk Institutt for Naturforvaltning (NINA): www.nina.no

Rovdyr og Samfunn (RoSa): www.rosa.no

Gaupeprosjektet: www.rosa.no/gaupe/

Miljøverndepartementet (MD): www.dep.no/md

Rovviltmeldingen (Statlig melding nr. 15 (2003-2004) ): www.odin.dep.no/md/rovviltmelding

WWF: www.wwf.no

Norges Bondelag: www.bondelaget.no