In the interests of Full Disclosure, I have to report that Eastern Albania continues to kick Valbona’s butt (in terms of Lynx).
Dear all,I would like you to say good evening with the second photo of lynx from Shebenik – Jabllanica NP. Today we were in the north part of Shebenik- Jabllanica (Gjinovec), where we got the second one. This photo was taken yesterday at 6:28 pm. Tomorrow we have plan to go in the field work to check the others cameras in another place, so let hopes to have the third photo.
Cheers,
Bledi
The thing about this location is that there IS a breeding population in neighboring Macedonia. As discussed on 22 September (below), each Lynx requires an enormous territory, so it may well be that Lynx in S-J are isolated individuals, being sort of pushed out of Macedonia where they’re born. If they’re not breeding in Albania, then it isn’t really a healthy population – not that I suppose Lynx give a fig (or the feline equivalent) for national boundaries. If we could only get pictures here, especially of CUBS (!!!) that would prove a significantly larger (and healthier) distribution.
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24-26 October 2012 – VL 105 & VL 112 – Shtegu per Qafa e Zhaborre
VL103: 5 July 2012 – 4 Oct 2012The choice of this location reflects spring 2012′s determination to find and photograph Chamois. In 2011 we did not get a single picture of Chamois, and since we know we have a lot of them, this seemed to reflect a flaw in the study. To be fair, it doesn’t seem likely that there would be Lynx wandering around up here (too steep and exposed), but then again, this is all the beginning, while we’re testing and narrowing . . . . so what the heck. Interestingly, I noticed there’s some sort of quite extensive burrow just uphill from this camera (in front of the Chamois in the picture). When I replace the batteries, I shifted the camera half a meter to a different tree, so future pictures will have a slightly different view. | |
VL104: 5 July 2012 – 12 August 2012Set further downhill from VL103, in Beech scrub. While we were pretty sure we would catch Chamois further up, it seemed more likely that Lynx would be lurking in the underbrush here. However, over time it seemed sillier and sillier to have two cameras so close, in a place where I didn’t really think we’d see anything, so I pulled this one when I went to replace the batteries on VL103. (See map under 2 October for old camera locations). |
2 October 2012 – VL110 – Posht prej Helli i Kuq
23 September 2012 – VL97 & VL109 – Western Ismalaj
22 September 2012 - VL107 & 108 – Zhari i Bjezhz
Assuming I’m not mangling what they told me, Christine & Urs Breitenmoser of the KORA recently explained to me that each European Lynx has a territory of 100 to 200 square km. They use this territory to switch hunting grounds, criss-crossing their whole territory to hit prey herds which have been lulled into carelessness by the Lynx’s absence, quickly moving on again. This useful information changes the camera placement strategy a bit – the trick is to catch the Lynx in places where they can cross easily from one side of the territory to the other (assuming, of course that they’re HERE).
That being the case, these two cameras are were placed in the forest just below the easiest way of passing up to the highlands where the Chamois (aka: dinner) are. I still don’t really understand (come to think of it), whether the Lynx wait for the goats to wander into the forest where they’re easy to ambush, or whether the Lynx try creeping around in the highlands. They hunt (like all cats I think?) by ambush . . . . More to find out.
21 September 2012 – VL106 – Shpati i Mijushës
Placed this camera for a number of reasons. Local wisdom says that the Roe Deer are all either up around Cerem or in Curraj i Eperm (if I understand correctly, Roe deer are Lynxes favorite food). This camera also covers the back side of Kollata. The only problem is that it will be bloody difficult to get back up there after December . . . . .
19 August 2012 - VL101 & VL102 – Pylli i Picimalit
14 August 2012 - News and New Cameras
5 August 2012 - VL97 “Ismalaj West Slope – Cat Cam”
Here’s a blast from the Wintery Past. In late December (2011) I’d changed the batteries on this camera, expecting to be able to change them again at the beginning of February – thus capturing the Jan-March mating period of the Balkan Lynx. Of course on February 3rd it started to snow (and snow and snow and snow and SNOW) – the biggest snow in 50 years – which meant that in the end I couldn’t have gotten back to the camera before April. Feeling fed up with it, and since I had lots of other cameras to move around, and since the only animals we ever got on this one was the Wild Cat pictures last October, I left this camera to collect after all the other ones. That’s why all these pictures are so old! | |
Once I’d trudged up to the camera, I starting thinking that the wild cats were awfully cute, and that this was after all the only camera currently in the Motina valley — which after all is the gateway to Curraj i Eperm and which is where, if anywhere, (after all) the lynx should probably be found, AND that after all that after-alling, this is the location where, last October, Bledi and I almost walked straight into a Brown Bear – who took one look at us and fled, appalled . . . . So once I was there I thought – well, actually, this isn’t such a bad place, and just put new batteries and left the camera. | |
I also decided to see where this path actually goes — there clearly wouldn’t be any very wild animals going up the path from the Ismalaj village end where I came from, so I wanted to see from where they might be coming down. Therefore I bumbled along, sometimes following a clear path, sometimes crashing through overgrowth, following old traces of branches having been cut by someone – some of which looked VERY old – but at least they showed that it WAS a path at one time. I was ‘after-alling’ myself the whole way. On the one hand, the path where it WAS clear looked very nice, meaning animals WOULD use it; And on the other hand the overgrown bits meant that there didn’t seem to be many people using it now, so all the better for animals. On the other, other hand, the path just carried on uphill across the slope through the woods as far as a small stream, and then meandered back down hill and across the slope to re-join the Motina river further along. It never connected to anything going up to higher places where you might expect to find wild goats (and the Lynxes that love (aka: eat!) them). | |
All of which is WHY it was so exciting to get back to the computer and look at the photographs from the winter: December, Janaury, February! Grand Total: 3 Biologists, 2 Foxes, 1 Marten, and FOUR Chamois! You can see all the pictures on our flickr page.Wild Goats (Chamois) and Roe Deer are the favorite prey of Lynxes, so the more we know that the cameras are in a place that THEY frequent, the more likely we are to catch Lynxes. Now I’m glad I left that camera, and am thinking of going back to set another one, higher up and deeper in the forest – also of course further away from people! |
17 July 2012 – VL 99 “Thepi i Begit” & VL 100 “Shpella e Dragobise”
8 May 2012 – VL99 “Thepi i Begit”