The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus Lynx. It is widely distributed from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. It inhabits temperate and boreal forests up to an elevation of . Despite its wide distribution, it is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching and depletion of prey.
Characteristics The Eurasian lynx has a relatively short, reddish or brown coat that is marked with black spots; their number and pattern are highly variable. The underparts, neck and chin are whitish. The fur is more brightly coloured with more numerous spots in animals living at the southern end of its range. In winter, it is much thicker and varies from silver-grey to greyish brown. Some animals have dark brown stripes on the forehead and back. It has powerful, relatively long legs, with large webbed and furred paws that act like snowshoes. It also has a short "bobbed" tail with an all-black tip, black tufts of hair on its ears, and a long grey-and-white ruff.
It is the largest of the four lynx species, ranging in body length from in males; in females; and standing at the shoulder. The tail is long, constituting a total length of up to in the largest males. Weights of both sexes in Russia range from , but more than is attained very rarely and is possibly exaggerated. A Eurasian lynx from the Altai Mountains allegedly weighed . Those inhabiting Fennoscandia and westwards are considerably smaller, with a range of just , though individuals in the Carpathian Mountains may rival those in the Altai in size.
Taxonomy Felis lynx was the scientific name used in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in his work Systema Naturae. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the following Eurasian lynx subspecies were proposed:
Subspecies Distribution ImageNorthern lynx (L. l. lynx) Fennoscandia, the Baltic states, Poland, Belarus, European Russia, the Ural Mountains, Western Siberia and east to the Yenisei river.Turkestan lynx (L. l. isabellinus) West-Central Asia to Northern South Asia: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China (Tibet), India (Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia (Altai Krai, Altai Republic) Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Caucasian lynx (L. l. dinniki) Caucasus, Iran, Turkey, and European Russia.Siberian lynx (L. l. wrangeli) Russian Far East, Kamchatka Peninsula, the Stanovoy Range and east of the Yenisei River.Balkan lynx (L. l. balcanicus) Eastern Serbia and western North Macedonia, with smaller populations in Montenegro and Albania.Carpathian lynx (L. l. carpathicus) Carpathian Basin of Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Northern Italy.
The following were also proposed, but are not considered valid taxa: Altai lynx (L. l. wardi) Baikal lynx (L. l. kozlovi) Amur lynx (L. l. stroganovi) Sardinian lynx (L. l. sardiniae)
Distribution and habitat
The Eurasian lynx inhabits rugged country providing plenty of hideouts and stalking opportunities. Depending on the locality, this may include rocky-steppe, mixed forest-steppe, boreal forest, and montane forest ecosystems. In the more mountainous parts of its range, Eurasian lynx descends to the lowlands in winter, following prey species and avoiding deep snow. Despite its adaptations for moving in snow, it finds loose, deep snow difficult to deal with and cannot survive in areas with snow depths exceeding . It tends to be less common where the grey wolf (Canis lupus) is abundant, and wolves have been reported to attack and even eat lynx.
Europe The Eurasian lynx was once widespread throughout most of continental Europe. By the early 19th century, it was persecuted to local extinction in western and southern European lowlands, but survived only in mountainous areas and Scandinavian forests. By the 1950s, it had become extinct in most of Western and Central Europe, where only scattered and isolated populations exist today.
Fennoscandia The Eurasian lynx was close to extinction in Scandinavia in the 1930s. Since the 1950s, the population slowly recovered and forms three subpopulations in northern, central and southern Scandinavia. In Norway, the Eurasian lynx was subjected to an official bounty between 1846 and 1980 and could be hunted without license. In 1994, a compensation scheme for livestock killed by lynx was introduced. By 1996, the lynx population was estimated to comprise 410 individuals, decreased to fewer than 260 individuals in 2004 and increased since 2005 to about 452 mature individuals by 2008.
In Sweden, the lynx population was estimated at 1,400 individuals in 2006 and 1,250 in 2011. Hunting is controlled by government agencies. In Finland, about 2,200–2,300 individuals were present according to a 2009 estimate. The lynx population in Finland has been increasing every year since 1991, and is estimated to be nowadays larger than ever before. Limited hunting is permitted. In 2009 the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry gave a permit for hunting of 340 lynx individuals.
Western Europe
In Great Britain, subfossil remains of Eurasian lynx have been dated to the early Middle Ages, and the 7th or 8th century Welsh poem Dinogad's Smock likely makes reference to the presence of lynx in Cumbria. It is possible that other Medieval and Modern era references to "wild cats" and "cats of the mountain", as late as the 18th century, actually refer to Eurasian lynx and not the wildcat as is commonly assumed. It has been proposed to reintroduce the lynx to the Scottish Highlands and Kielder Forest in Northumberland. In January 2025, several lynxes were illegally released near Kingussie in the Cairngorms National Park; they were captured by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and taken to the Highland Wildlife Park and subsequently to Edinburgh Zoo.
A large lynx that hunted deer and livestock, sometimes called "tiger" and "deer's wolf" (llobu/lobo cerval), was also reported in Green Spain until the 19th century. These accounts were traditionally regarded as references to Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), a smaller endemic species of the Iberian Peninsula. However, genetic testing of remains showed that the Eurasian and Iberian lynx coexisted into recent times in the Iberian Peninsula with little overlap, the Eurasian lynx being present in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and the Iberian lynx in Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub. The Eurasian lynx of Spain was a unique, extinct lineage more related to the Carpathian and Baltic subspecies. It was genetically impoverished already in pre-Roman times, possibly because of founder effect, which made it even more vulnerable to human persecution. The government of Asturias studied the feasibility of Eurasian lynx reintroduction in 2019. In the Catalonian Pyrenees, the last Eurasian lynx was killed in the 1930s, though unconfirmed sightings continued until the 1990s. The Síndic d'Aran planned a reintroduction in 2016 but canceled it due to the opposition of hunters and livestock farmers.
In Germany, the Eurasian lynx was exterminated in 1850. It was reintroduced to the Bavarian Forest and the Harz in the 1990s; other areas were populated by lynxes migrating from France and the Czech Republic. In 2002, the first birth of wild lynx on German territory was announced, following a litter from a pair of lynx in the Harz National Park. Small populations exist also in Saxon Switzerland, Palatinate Forest, and Fichtel Mountains. Eurasian lynx also migrated to Austria, where they had also been exterminated. An episode of the PBS television series Nature featured the return of the lynx to Austria's Kalkalpen National Park after a 150-year absence. A higher proportion is killed by humans than by infectious diseases.
In Switzerland, the Eurasian lynx was exterminated in the early 20th century, with the last confirmed sighting around Simplon pass in 1904. From 1971 on, Carpathian lynx were reintroduced in the Alps and the Jura Mountains. Since then, the population has grown slowly but steadily. In 2019, around 250 lynx were reportedly living in Switzerland, roughly a third of them in the Jura Mountains, and the rest in the Alps and Pre-Alps.
The Eurasian lynx was exterminated in the French Alps in the early 20th century. Following reintroduction of lynx in the Swiss Jura Mountains in the 1970s, lynxes were recorded again in the French Alps and Jura from the late 1970s onwards.
In Italy, it recolonised the Italian Alps since the 1980s, also from reintroduced populations in Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. By 2010, the Alpine lynx population comprised about 120–150 individuals ranging over in six sub-areas.
In the Netherlands, lynxes have been sighted sporadically since 1985 in the country's southern part. Since 2020, the presence of lynxes has been confirmed by camera trapping in the Ardennes region in southern Belgium, proving the presence of the species following more than 25 years of unconfirmed sightings in the region.
Central and Eastern Europe
Balkan Peninsula: The Balkan lynx subspecies is found in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and possibly Greece. They can be found in remote mountainous regions of the Balkans, with the largest numbers in remote hills of western North Macedonia, eastern Albania and northern Albania. The Balkan lynx is considered a national symbol of North Macedonia, and it is depicted on the reverse of the Macedonian 5 denars coin, issued in 1993. The name of Lynkestis, a Macedonian tribe, is translated as "Land of the Lynx". It has been on the brink of extinction for nearly 100 years. Numbers are estimated to be around 100, and the decline is due to illegal poaching. Carpathian Mountains: About 2,800 Eurasian lynx live in the mountain range, split between the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary. It is the largest contiguous Eurasian lynx population west of the Russian border. Dinaric Alps and Julian Alps: Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are home to approx. 130–200 lynx. The Eurasian lynx had been considered extinct in these countries since the beginning of the 20th century. However, a successful reintroduction project was carried out in Slovenia in 1973, when three female and three male lynx from Slovakia were released in the Kočevski Rog forest. Today, lynx are present in the Dinaric forests of the south and southeastern part of Slovenia and in the Croatian regions of Gorski kotar and Velebit, spanning the Dinaric Alps and over the Dinara Mountains into western Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lynx has been also spotted in the Julian Alps and elsewhere in western Slovenia, but the A1 motorway presents a significant hindrance to the development of the population there. Croatia's Plitvice Lakes National Park is home to several pairs of the lynx. In the three countries, the Eurasian lynx is listed as an endangered species and protected by law. Realistic population estimates are 40 lynx in Slovenia, 40–60 in Croatia, and more than 50 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Croatian massif Risnjak in Risnjak National Park got its name from the Croatian word for the lynx, ris. Belarus: the most recent data from the national parks, reserves, and hunting grounds demonstrate the number of lynxes in Belarus to be in the range of 550 to 600 animals.