Warsaw - WWF plans to introduce lynx from Estonia into the Polish forests of Piska and Napiwodzko-Ramuckie in order to combat the declining population in the country. The first felines should be relocated by February 2011.

Bobcat numbers have been decreasing dramatically in Poland in the past 20 years resulting in the listing of the species, mainly threatened by hunting and habitat loss, in the Polish red Book of Animals in 1995.

‘The lynx's survival is at stake in Poland. With the transfer of animals from Estonia, we hope to repopulate the forests and prevent the species from extinction in the country" said Pawel Sredzinski, leader of the WWF Poland Lynx Campaign.

Lynx population in Poland have benefitted from a ban prohibiting hunting passed in 1995.

Estonia has one of the densest lynx populations in Europe allowing regular harvest. Hunting is legal, strictly regulated and under state control. Lynx is never hunted for fur although the belts and sculls are used as trophies . Adaptive management is rather one of the measures for long-term conservation of lynx in Estonia. Strong local population and similar genetic structure are the reasons why it`s proper to use Estonian lynx in this translocation program. 

"During the last decade the number has been increasing and nowadays the number is higher than ever before. The current number is estimated to be around 800 individuals," says Peep Mannil (Estonia's environment ministry and also ELF´s Council).

WWF started raising funds to pay for the transfers. The cost of relocating just one lynx is 10'000 Zloty, almost eight times more than the country's minimum wage.

There are currently only 200 lynx in Poland. Most of them live in the Polish Carpathians but an estimated 60 felines live in the Piska and Napiwodzko-Ramuckich forests where the Estonia bobcats will be introduced.