The endangered big cat has many defenders, from hunters to rugby players, but its survival on the Balkan peninsula remains touch and go
In late March, Lisa and Filipche crossed the Macedonian-Albanian border together. They fearlessly climbed the forest-covered hills of Mount Korab. After staying briefly in Albania, they headed to the neighboring Mount Deshat, where, by following the steep trails, they once again set foot in Macedonian territory. They deliberately avoided the border crossings, roads, and all traces of human civilization. For them, it didn’t matter that their territory was spread across two different states. The most important thing on their journey was to produce offspring – to continue the existence of their species.
Lisa and Filipche are two Balkan lynx from Mavrovo National Park in North Macedonia. But their story is far from a romantic one. As soon as man steps in, it becomes all the more tragic.
There are about 40 Balkan lynx left in the world besides them, located in three neighboring countries where environmental protection remains relatively low on the list of national priorities. And it is human actions that have brought the Balkan lynx to the brink of extinction.
That is why organizations from North Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo have come together to act as protectors of the lynx, which appears on the Macedonian five-denar coin and is on the verge of dying out, according to the Red List of Threatened Species.
Keepers of Nature’s Balance
While stories and legends say that our ancestors used to worship this mysterious cat, the reality today is that its survival is at the mercy of political will. The Macedonian Ecological Society (MES) and its partner organizations involved in the Balkan Lynx Recovery Program have relentlessly undertaken a wide range of efforts to kindle that will. They have been monitoring the lynx for 15 years now in their efforts to preserve the ecosystem.
The lynx is at the top of the food chain and as such regulates the population of other animal species in its surroundings. If the lynx becomes extinct, it may lead to large and unpredictable changes in the natural ecosystem.
“The lynx, like other top predators, plays a role in regulating the populations of mostly ungulates [primarily large mammals with hooves], Serbian game species, and rabbits, but also in preventing the overpopulation of such species, because they can damage crops, trees, or anything they eat,” Dime Melovski of MES explains. “It [the lynx] also controls the so-called mesopredators. These include carnivorous animals like the fox or the marten.”
Melovski has dedicated his life and work to the study and protection of the big cat. The lynx captured his attention while he was still a biology student. He has spent months on the Macedonian mountains, following the footsteps of the Balkan lynx. Two decades later, as his PhD thesis on the lynx is nearly finished, he is the man who is said to “know everything” about this mysterious animal.
According to Melovski, the survival of the lynx, especially their young, depends on having sufficient amounts of food and calories that must be ingested in the first 10 to 11 months of life. During that time it’s important for the female to constantly bring them food and to be persistently successful in her hunts.
“If there is any disturbance in the form of hydropower plants, mining activities, or construction of access roads, it makes successful hunting that much harder. It disturbs not only lynx but also their prey on the territory shared by both males and females,” Melovski says.
That is why it is important to monitor lynx like Lisa and Filipche in the countries of the southwest Balkans. When biologists successfully capture a lynx and equip it with a GPS collar, they are given the opportunity to see the specific territory it moves in, where it seeks prey, and whether it can find food. Furthermore, they can analyze how the new infrastructure affects its movement, or even whether the animal is a victim of poachers – because if the forest animals are afraid of the lynx, the only threat to the lynx is man.
Unlike humans, lynx know no borders. Most of them are found in Mavrovo National Park, the core area of the Balkan lynx in the region. In Albania they breed on Mount Munella, and this year for the first time there is proof of the reproduction of the lynx on the mountains near Polis in eastern Albania. They are also present in Prokletije (the Accursed Mountains), the range straddling Kosovo, Albania, and Montenegro. These are the regions where MES, Protection and Preservation of the Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA), and the Kosovo Group for Ecologically Responsible Action (ERA) are actively working to save the lynx.
From Marko to Atidze
Mavrovo National Park is located in the western part of North Macedonia. The protected area spreads across 72,000 hectares (1,800,000 acres). For over a decade, biologists have been working on projects aimed at protecting the lynx. The most important part of these initiatives takes place from January up to mid-April – the season for capturing lynx and equipping them with a GPS collar. They were unusually lucky this year. Despite the coronavirus outbreak and the state of emergency across the country, the season ended a full month early and they trapped three lynx, all female.
“Females are usually smarter than males and are harder to trap,” Melovski says jokingly.
Seven lynx were successfully trapped last year, with just one female among them, named Maja. This year, things went a bit differently. In early February, Narcissa, a healthy 3-year-old female weighing 15 kilograms (33 pounds), was caught. A month later, they trapped Lisa, Filipche’s mate. On 14 March – exactly 10 years since trapping the first Balkan lynx, Marko – another female strolled into the Mavrovo trap. They named her Atidze.
“It was incredible, 10 years to the day since we caught Marko,” Melovski says, recalling that the day before they were considering withdrawing from Mavrovo because the surrounding region had already been put under lockdown.
Ekrem Veapi, nicknamed Eco by his colleagues, is a 28-year-old Mavrovo park ranger. He has a master’s degree in biology and ecology from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje. He’s happy to be able to assist MES and its partners in their lynx conservation efforts.
He passionately explains how the camera traps, which help study the cat’s movements, are set, saying that the lynx “inhabits the forest to hide from humans, because humans are its only natural enemy.”
“In the past, due to a lack of education, both hunters and the public may have considered the lynx as a threat to their domestic animals,” Veapi says. “But today, hunting clubs are more educated. The project I manage is related to the protection of the Balkan lynx and has workshops for the hunters, ranchers, local workers, and all target groups that may come into contact with the lynx. The aim is to educate them that the lynx is not an animal that can harm them.”
Veapi lives in Trebishte, a village in the municipality of Mavrovo and Rostusha. The region abounds in mountains and picturesque views. It is also brimming with stories about the lynx.
We heard one such story from Adnan Fejzuli, who took us to the neighboring village of Velebrdo, his home. He has been hunting since his late 20s, and he is the founder of the Krchin-achki hunting association. Several months ago, a relative of his noticed a lynx by the road near the Radika River.
“It’s uncommon for the lynx to come near populated areas. Then again – how do I put this? – if it can’t find enough food it may come near inhabited places. However, the population here protects it. We are the guardians of the lynx. We have never hunted a lynx! It’s even our trademark; it’s on our hunting association’s logo,” Fejzuli says.
The hunter complains that many people have been leaving the village. In the past, people used to be drawn here and used to cultivate the land. Now, they are searching for a better life in Western European countries such as Germany and Italy, and they rarely come back home. Now, he says, there are more bears than people here.
The bear, just like the lynx, is protected by the state. But Fejzuli points out that in comparison to the 15-20 lynx left in Mavrovo and its surroundings, bears are numerous and cause serious problems.
“They cause damage to beekeepers, farmers, our crops and fields. The number of bears is increasing and the institutions need to do something to curb it,” the hunter says.
Female Rugby Players and “Kosovo’s Bear Grylls”
The Balkan lynx is also present in the forests of Kosovo, and even embedded in the spirit of the women’s rugby team from the capital Pristina – a team of young girls who practice in the gym of the Third Millennium school. The team is called “the Balkan Lynx.” Apart from accepting that the Balkan lynx is slowly infiltrating the social and cultural life in Kosovo, this country can also boast with having proof, thanks to the camera traps in Prokletije National Park, that the lynx is truly present in the area and not just in people’s stories.
“The lynx we caught here indicates that this is not just some random lynx that has crossed over from Macedonia and Albania, but a natural heritage, seeing that all the elements in the past have pointed to the existence of a large population of lynx unlike today’s numbers,” says Fatos Lajci from the Kosovo Group for Ecologically Responsible Action (ERA).
“Kosovo’s Bear Grylls,” as some activists have nicknamed him after the famous British adventurer, grew up in the Prokletije Mountains. As a child he heard stories and learned about the lynx. Eventually, in 2003, when deforestation reached its highest level, Lajci established ERA to bring experts together with local and central institutions. At the same time, they kept working on protecting and strengthening the local economy via an international project for sustainability and tourism, Peaks of the Balkans. The goal is to enable locals to profit from tourism instead of cutting down the forests, the lynx habitat.
Sometime in 2010, Lajci received a phone call from the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency to meet with a representative from Germany’s EuroNatur Foundation. They talked about the lynx, its population size, and whether it populates the area at all.
“I told him, ‘Yes, I have seen a lynx in 2001 and very close to the city for that matter.’ I know he didn’t believe me; he was skeptical because we had no proof,” Lajci says. “But four years later, we partnered with Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro within the Balkan Lynx Recovery Program. We started the program, and EuroNatur supported us with only five cameras. Three months after setting up the camera traps, we showed them a lynx. It was spectacular news, because I know that it took Macedonia over a year to ‘catch’ a lynx. In Albania it took over two years. But here, the cameras delivered results in just three months’ time. We caught the first individual in Kosovo on camera; it caused quite the stir in the media, television, even in EuroNatur itself.”
We met Lajci in Peja, a city situated below the Rugova Gorge and Prokletije. Partners, activists, and biologists from MES, ERA, and PPNEA gathered there to discuss the Balkan lynx and the next steps toward saving the big cat.
The Rugova Gorge offers astonishing rocky landscapes, waterfalls, and lush green vegetation. Deep in the forest we came across the prints of a bear that had stopped there to scratch an itch against a tree. According to the activists that is a common sight. A small makeshift viewing platform has also been built for observing wildlife – from bears, deer, and rabbits, to the smallest species: mice.
This environment is ideal for the lynx, Lajci explains. Effort is needed, however, to preserve it both from state institutions and citizens. According to him, in this modern age of computers and social media, the biggest problem is that people don’t want to share their time with nature.
“They want to enjoy nature and then go home. And that’s different because you have to give something back to nature. That’s important. For me, it’s not just about having ‘a stunning landscape’ or ‘breathing fresh air.’ In the evening, you post a photo of your family on Facebook, but you never post photos of cut-down trees or similar unpleasant sights. You want to share with your friends that you’ve visited a ‘wonderful place.’ This kind of contribution is minuscule. To prevent all the negative things you need to publicize them. You can’t simply say ‘Hey, someone is cutting down trees!’ No! It’s a system!” he says.
Aleksandar Pavlov from MES was also part of this field trip to Prokletije. He believes that the perceived increase in the population of the Balkan lynx in the region is encouraging.
“We are talking about a critically endangered animal that inhabits the Balkan Peninsula. Yes, we can say that the stronghold of the Balkan lynx is in Macedonia, but the lynx itself is unaware of political borders. It is widespread in certain parts of Albania, in Kosovo, and it is important to work together toward the recovery of the lynx population. The fact that we are witnessing a slight increase is somewhat encouraging. It’s small but it is an increase nonetheless in the population of the Balkan lynx. But that is far from ideal. Because at the moment there are lots of open issues that affect the lynx,” Pavlov says.
Thus he believes it is especially important to cooperate not only with the non-governmental sector, but also with state institutions.
Manuela von Arx – a representative of KORA, a carnivore study organization in Switzerland – shares Pavlov’s views on the subject. This organization has been conducting lynx-related research and providing expert assistance throughout Europe since the 1990s. Fortunately, Germany and Switzerland are able to remain continually committed to the problem through foundations, which means that there are ways to set aside funds for conservation efforts, von Arx says.
“I think that there are other priorities in these countries [North Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo], like high unemployment rates and ministries more interested in infrastructure. I also think that the political situation is not as stable as in Germany and Switzerland. You are always holding elections here [in the Western Balkans]; there are always new people running the ministries, so it is not very stable, and it is difficult to build something. On the other hand, the situation is far more stable in Switzerland, for example; we have built long-term cooperation with the ministries,” she explains.
The EuroNatur Foundation is also active in the region. Mareike Brix, an expert on large carnivores, adds that cooperation between institutions and civil society is vital. She says that sometimes there are political interests at stake, but in general the institutions don’t always make things difficult.
“This is something we need in the long run. We can’t implement something unique as a non-governmental organization. It just doesn’t work that way,” Brix says. “We need the support of government officials, and we need them to understand that these things are important for the development of the country. Globally, when we talk about climate change and similar problems, we know that these issues depend on political decisions. And, of course, we need politicians to make those kinds of decisions.”
Since lynx are scarce in Kosovo, there have been no attempts so far to catch one and put a tracking collar on it. However, recently a piece of good news caught the attention of the public. For the first time ever, a lynx was recorded on the protected Kosovo side of the Shar Mountains. The Macedonian side of the range remains less studied and more devastated. Activists have been pushing for years for this side of the Shar to be declared a national park.
The Bittersweet Story of Munella
The Tirana-Pristina highway has segmented the habitat of the Balkan lynx. To the east, Lisa and Filipche can move around the high peaks of Korab and the protected Korab- Koritnik belt from the Albanian side, and Mavrovo from the North Macedonian side. To the west, Munella, a mountain in northern Albania, stands alone as one of the main places where the presence of lynx has been recorded.
As soon as you exit the wide highway, you enter a sparsely populated mountainous region. The only sign of life here are the numerous trucks navigating the local road. The mountain is being mined for copper ore and other minerals. The damage is obvious with huge tailing ponds gaping like open wounds on the mountainside.
Munella has not been granted protected status. Scarred by illegal logging, deforestation, and deliberate fire-setting, it now resembles a scene from an apocalyptic movie set in high-altitude, snow-blanketed areas, where lynx and wolves are desperately searching for prey.
This was the first thing that caught our eye when we climbed Munella. The team from PPNEA was setting up a trap in order to catch a lynx and equip it with a GPS-tracking collar, as part of the research and monitoring activities within the Balkan Lynx Recovery Program. They want Munella to become a protected area, with proper administration and monitoring.
For the third year in a row, the organization’s activists have been trying to capture a lynx on Munella. But the coronavirus outbreak has halted field operations in Albania, as well. And they weren’t as lucky as their Macedonian colleagues.
“Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the lynx monitoring activities on the Munella Mountain. We deactivated the trap ahead of schedule. Nevertheless, our cameras are still active and are taking photographs of the lynx,” says Bledi Hoxha of PPNEA.
With the collar, though, they could have made a more in-depth analysis on how to protect the lynx on Munella because, according to Hoxha, there are now only four or five individuals left.
“Of course we are disappointed and we are working with the locals who are cooperating with the local and state authorities. The lynx needs urgent conservation measures! And the first measure we have been requesting for so many years is to declare Munella a national park as soon as possible. That will allow us to undertake other actions and things will improve faster,” Hoxha says.
A string of forest fires has also contributed to Munella’s degradation. Another threat for the lynx is poachers. In the past 20 years, man has increased his pressure on this species, with activists saying that Albania has now found itself recording the lowest lynx population so far. They also note some progress, like the moratorium on hunting throughout Albania, imposed in 2014 and valid through 2021, but they believe that the law is being implemented selectively. A conflict also exists between the hunting lobby and the government over wildlife management measures.
“The Balkan lynx is a protected species, which means that any form of hunting, trapping, or any type of keeping or harming the species is considered illegal,” Aleksander Trajce of PPNEA says. “However, there are also man-made threats that indirectly but strongly affect the Balkan lynx by decreasing the population size of their prey through extreme deer poaching and hunting wild goats and rabbits, the Balkan lynx’s key food source. So, if you take away the animal’s food source, you reduce its chance of survival.”
He recalls a case from 2015 when a lynx was killed on Munella. That incident illustrated the importance of lynx conservation education. But it was also proof that lynx are still being born on Munella.
“That particular individual [lynx] behaved uncontrollably and approached a flock of sheep, but, according to the information provided, it moved in a very unpredictable way and didn’t seem to know what it was doing,” Trajce says. “We suspect that it was a young lynx separated from its mother. It was malnourished as the subsequent autopsy showed, and displayed atypical behavior for a lynx. Unfortunately, the shepherd failed to recognize the animal. The shepherd himself was a local young boy only 12 or 13 years old. The lynx came very close to him, which scared him so he struck the animal on the head with a stick, without recognizing the species. This is a rather unfortunate incident and we don’t expect it would happen again, but it has shown us the importance of working with the younger generation in particular. They need to learn about this species, we need to show them how rare it is, how beautiful it is, and how important it is for the ecosystem.”
Gjet Gjoni lives close to Munella, in the immediate vicinity of the Pristina-Tirana highway. His village of Spac is almost deserted, with only two family houses built above a huge mine with three generations of the same family living under the same roof. He is telling us how he recently married off a son who lives with him, while serving us a welcome treat composed of mekitsa (a type of flatbread), homemade honey, and goat cheese. And, of course, rakija. Gjoni has been helping activists track the Balkan lynx in the region for years. He says that the decision to declare Munella as a protected area is long overdue, because the region abounds in different types of wildlife and vegetation, and is highly suitable for tourism, especially because of the terrain. The region is also known for its minerals.
“And that’s why we need to be careful with this area,” Gjoni says in his courtyard with the sound of drilling in the background.
He stresses that the mines have their own specific circumstances, but that “it goes without saying that where there is human-related activity wildlife will surely be disturbed.”
“We have also lobbied the company located next to the mine to act as sensibly as possible for both the workers and their [the company’s] own sake, and we have established special cooperation in order to protect these animals,” Gjoni claims.
He says that in the past people used to confuse lynx with cats. They couldn’t distinguish the two. “During heavy snowfall, a lynx sometimes descended the mountain searching for food. And it used to come very close to the houses, so we had a few incidents. I even remember it coming down here in my region. It went right by our houses to feed and it looked like something strange, like a cat,” he recalls.
According to Zamir Dedej, director of Albania’s National Agency for Protected Areas, the proposal to put Munella on the list of national parks is being seriously considered.
“The proposal submitted by PPNEA was well-received. We are in the process of having it declared a protected area. We are certain that certain difficulties will arise, especially concerning ongoing or planned activities. I’m talking about hydropower plants and mines. These are the two main activities in the area, as we know. We should find a way to avoid them or completely shut them down. There is no middle ground,” Dedej stresses.
He believes that Munella is not the only core area for lynx in Albania. This is backed up by the latest discovery, which happened earlier this spring when a family of three lynx was caught on camera for the first time in Elbasan County. This was an important discovery for the activists and gave them hope concerning the survival of the species in Albania.
Capital of the Balkan Lynx
The lynx is also protected by the local inhabitants of Zhirovnica. This is the northernmost village in the Dolna Reka region of North Macedonia. Deshat rises above the village to the southwest, Korab to the north, and Mount Bistra to the southeast. Here, at an altitude of 912 meters, residents are proudly fighting for the survival of the lynx.
The endangered animal has permeated local culture and customs. It is also part of the children’s education. They learn to draw the lynx from an early age, and their efforts hang on the walls of Josip Broz Tito Primary School.
“The lynx is, of course, our national treasure as it is used as a symbol on our national coins,” says Anes Ahmeti, the school principal and a teacher of geography.
Local experience and the biologists’ GPS signal points indicate that the lynx love the forests around Zhirovnica. They are more active at night but people still see them frequently. Those sightings are then retold from person to person. But the lynx has never attacked humans or caused any damage.
“The very fact that the lynx is shown on drawings all over our school indicates that people share a sense of attachment to the animal and a sense of pride in being able to say that the few remaining individuals on the entire Balkan Peninsula or perhaps Europe as a whole are living in our own village,” the principal says.
The village is also known for adamantly saying “no” to hydropower plants. Three small hydropower plants were planned to be built in Zhirovnica, and two projects had already obtained the concession with all the accompanying documentation. Ahmeti says that their construction would have destroyed the entire ecosystem in this protected area.
“If we take the water, then we are detaching a single link from the ecosystem chain and it won’t work properly anymore. One of the reasons behind this is the lynx. Although our concerns are focused on the water supply for the village, the lynx also inhabits this area so it is one of the key factors. Personally, as a resident of this village, and from our activities as a local community, together with the local population and the diaspora, I think our position is clear. I call on those concerned to give up. Our goal is to prevent them from being built and we will not allow their construction at any cost!” he insists.
Albanian schoolchildren also learn about the lynx. Activist Klaudia Koci of PPNEA shows us a drawing of a lynx by a fifth-grade girl in the town of Puka, where the presence of lynx was confirmed in 2019. The drawing is a product of the educational process and workshops conducted by PPNEA.
“This drawing was made back in 2015 and that little girl is now in high school. She is now taking part in national art competitions and continues to promote the lynx, our work, and of course the information about the species. We visited practically all 15 schools in Puka and the Mirdita region. We trained teachers to educate children,” Koci explains.
The discovery of a dead lynx near Puka further underlined the need for education. This spurred PPNEA, working with their partners from Germany and the Albanian authorities, to develop a three-year strategy for further education about the lynx. Albanian authorities are also working with colleagues from North Macedonia and Kosovo to create a joint educational package.
***
Somewhere in the woods near Zhirovnica this spring, Lisa and Filipche were expecting their offspring. Activists believe they had mated by April. If all goes well, their cub was expected to be born in May. A cub that will bring joy to three neighboring countries and new hope for the conservation of the Balkan lynx. (Radio MOF /Transitions Online, 21 May, 2020)
This article originally appeared on the website of Радио МОФ, an internet radio station in North Macedonia. Prepared by Jasmina Jakimova, Emilija Petreska, Bojan Shashevski, and Daniel Evrosimoski.
Translated by Aleksandar Stojcev.
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