"Lynx hunters with camera traps"

 Article in the weekly magazine "Vikend", April 2008

This is a reportage on the intensive camera-trapping session conducted in Mavrovo NP from February till April 2008. In the first paragraph introduction of the people who are working in the Balkan Lynx Recovery Programme as well as the study area is given, where symbolically we (Dime and Gjorgji) are described as “lynx hunters with cameras”. The journalists spent one day in the field with us where they got the chance to see the camera-trapping work that is for the first time performed in MK. In the second part, the intensive camera-trapping method is explained with the Valeriana lure. The whole trip, the rough terrain, habitat description, beautiful landscape and bad weather is word by word described in the following text.

After the end of the field trip we came into our “headquarters” where the dynamics of the work is explained in details. We presented the map with the 32 localities where the cameras are set and told the journalists that 2 cameras were stolen till then. The help of the Mavrovo National Park staff is also stressed in the interview. Because of the delay of the triggering time, some of the photos we have do not contain the whole animal, but some parts of it (leg, head).

In the last paragraph future activities are listed (making a report from the camera-trapping session etc.). Threats for the lynx survival are given as well (poaching, habitat fragmentation). Lynx is a Macedonian symbol, it is on the Macedonian five denar coin, but still the lynx remains “A big cat with small chances”.