Today, June 11, the whole world celebrates International Lynx Day. This holiday was first celebrated in 2018 at the initiative of the European nature conservation project 3Lynx Project.
This tradition was started in order to spread knowledge about the wild cat and raise the issue of its conservation.
Currently, there are 4 modern species of lynx:
Eurasian or common lynx (Lynx lynx).
Spanish or Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus).
Bobcat (Lynx rufus).
Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis).
The fauna of Ukraine includes the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx).
The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is a beautiful, graceful carnivore from the cat family, considered the largest cat in Europe. It lives in large forests, unvisited areas with dense undergrowth and swampy areas. In nature, the lynx lives where "no roosters are heard" - far from settlements, in the highlands. It is very difficult to meet this animal in natural conditions. In Europe, the number of this cat is from 8,000 to 9,000 individuals, of which about 2,500 are in the Carpathian region. In Ukraine – about 500 individuals. Since 1994, when the lynx was included in the Red Book of Ukraine and hunting was banned, the population of the animal has not increased significantly, and little is still known about its life.
Each carnivore in the ecosystem has its own niche. In the case of the lynx – this is the regulation of the number of rodents, as well as foxes – carriers of diseases and parasites.
The main factors that negatively affect the number of lynxes in Ukraine are:
• reduction in the area of its habitats – high-mountain forests, swampy plains of Polissya;
• negative impact of human management, for example, logging, tourism;
• reduction of the food base;
• illegal trophy hunting (poaching);
• imperfect legislation in the field of prevention and detection of violations of hunting rules.
Mykolaiv Zoo has traditionally been involved in the celebration of this extremely important holiday for many years in a row. After all, lynxes have been kept in our zoo for a long time, they lived on the old territory of the zoo. And more than one generation of lynxes has already lived on the new territory and 69 cubs have been born.
Mykolaiv Zoo is home to a male named Lukashka, who was born in 2008. He arrived at Mykolaiv Zoo on May 27, 2009. We keep a pair of lynxes, Liupin and Zabava, who were born in our zoo. The zoo also keeps a female named Zara, who was born on May 8, 2022, and her parents are Lupin and Zabava.
We offer for viewing photos of lynxes from the archives of Mykolaiv Zoo.