Rehabilitation and release of orphaned Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Europe: Implications for management and conservation.

Rehabilitation of injured or immature individuals has become an increasingly used conservation and management tool. However, scientific evaluation of rehabilitations is rare, raising concern about post-release welfare as well as the cost-effectiveness of spending scarce financial resources. Over the past 20 years, events of juvenile Eurasian lynx presumably orphaned have been observed in many European lynx populations.

Genome-environment association analyses reveal geographically restricted adaptive divergence across the range of the widespread Eurasian carnivore (Linnaeus, 1758).

Local adaptations to the environment are an important aspect of the diversity of a species and their discovery, description and quantification has important implications for the fields of taxonomy, evolutionary and conservation biology. In this study, we scan genomes from several populations across the distributional range of the Eurasian lynx, with the objective of finding genomic windows under positive selection which may underlie local adaptations to different environments. A total of 394 genomic windows are found to be associated to local environmental conditions, and they are enriched for genes involved in metabolism, behaviour, synaptic organization and neural development.

Genetic Monitoring of Grey Wolves in Latvia Shows Adverse Reproductive and Social Consequences of Hunting.

Nowadays, genetic research methods play an important role in animal population studies. Since 2009, genetic material from Latvian wolf specimens obtained through hunting has been systematically gathered. This study, spanning until 2021, scrutinizes the consequences of regulated wolf hunting on population genetic metrics, kinship dynamics, and social organization.

Timing and synchrony of birth in Eurasian lynx across Europe.

The ecology and evolution of reproductive timing and synchrony have been a topic of great interest in evolutionary ecology for decades. Originally motivated by questions related to behavioral and reproductive adaptation to environmental conditions, the topic has acquired new relevance in the face of climate change. However, there has been relatively little research on reproductive phenology in mammalian carnivores.

African swine fever in Latvian wild boar-A step closer to elimination.

In 2014, African swine fever (ASF) emerged in Latvia for the first time. The majority of cases appeared in wild boar, but the presence of ASF in these animals constitutes a permanent threat to domestic pig holdings. Recent studies have shown an increase in serologically positive and a decrease in PCR-positive ASF cases in wild boar, possibly indicating a decline of ASF incidence.

Ungulate management in European national parks: Why a more integrated European policy is needed.

1. Primary objectives of national parks usually include both, the protection of natural processes and species conservation. When these objectives conflict, as occurs because of the cascading effects of large mammals (i.

Genomic patterns in the widespread Eurasian lynx shaped by Late Quaternary climatic fluctuations and anthropogenic impacts.

Disentangling the contribution of long-term evolutionary processes and recent anthropogenic impacts to current genetic patterns of wildlife species is key to assessing genetic risks and designing conservation strategies. Here, we used 80 whole nuclear genomes and 96 mitogenomes from populations of the Eurasian lynx covering a range of conservation statuses, climatic zones and subspecies across Eurasia to infer the demographic history, reconstruct genetic patterns, and discuss the influence of long-term isolation and/or more recent human-driven changes. Our results show that Eurasian lynx populations shared a common history until 100,000 years ago, when Asian and European populations started to diverge and both entered a period of continuous and widespread decline, with western populations, except Kirov, maintaining lower effective sizes than eastern populations.

Wolf population genetics in Europe: a systematic review, meta-analysis and suggestions for conservation and management.

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) is an iconic large carnivore that has increasingly been recognized as an apex predator with intrinsic value and a keystone species. However, wolves have also long represented a primary source of human-carnivore conflict, which has led to long-term persecution of wolves, resulting in a significant decrease in their numbers, genetic diversity and gene flow between populations. For more effective protection and management of wolf populations in Europe, robust scientific evidence is crucial.

Genome-wide analyses suggest parallel selection for universal traits may eclipse local environmental selection in a highly mobile carnivore.

Ecological and environmental heterogeneity can produce genetic differentiation in highly mobile species. Accordingly, local adaptation may be expected across comparatively short distances in the presence of marked environmental gradients. Within the European continent, wolves (Canis lupus) exhibit distinct north-south population differentiation.

Long-range gene flow and the effects of climatic and ecological factors on genetic structuring in a large, solitary carnivore: the Eurasian lynx.

Due to their high mobility, large terrestrial predators are potentially capable of maintaining high connectivity, and therefore low genetic differentiation among populations. However, previous molecular studies have provided contradictory findings in relation to this. To elucidate patterns of genetic structure in large carnivores, we studied the genetic variability of the Eurasian lynx, Lynx lynx throughout north-eastern Europe using microsatellite, mitochondrial DNA control region and Y chromosome-linked markers.

Recovery of large carnivores in Europe's modern human-dominated landscapes.

The conservation of large carnivores is a formidable challenge for biodiversity conservation. Using a data set on the past and current status of brown bears (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), gray wolves (Canis lupus), and wolverines (Gulo gulo) in European countries, we show that roughly one-third of mainland Europe hosts at least one large carnivore species, with stable or increasing abundance in most cases in 21st-century records. The reasons for this overall conservation success include protective legislation, supportive public opinion, and a variety of practices making coexistence between large carnivores and people possible.

Wild boar populations up, numbers of hunters down? A review of trends and implications for Europe.

Across Europe, wild boar numbers increased in the 1960s-1970s but stabilised in the 1980s; recent evidence suggests that the numbers and impact of wild boar has grown steadily since the 1980s. As hunting is the main cause of mortality for this species, we reviewed wild boar hunting bags and hunter population trends in 18 European countries from 1982 to 2012. Hunting statistics and numbers of hunters were used as indicators of animal numbers and hunting pressure.

Spatial genetic analyses reveal cryptic population structure and migration patterns in a continuously harvested grey wolf (Canis lupus) population in north-eastern Europe.

Spatial genetics is a relatively new field in wildlife and conservation biology that is becoming an essential tool for unravelling the complexities of animal population processes, and for designing effective strategies for conservation and management. Conceptual and methodological developments in this field are therefore critical. Here we present two novel methodological approaches that further the analytical possibilities of STRUCTURE and DResD.

Bucking the trend in wolf-dog hybridization: first evidence from europe of hybridization between female dogs and male wolves.

Studies on hybridization have proved critical for understanding key evolutionary processes such as speciation and adaptation. However, from the perspective of conservation, hybridization poses a concern, as it can threaten the integrity and fitness of many wild species, including canids. As a result of habitat fragmentation and extensive hunting pressure, gray wolf (Canis lupus) populations have declined dramatically in Europe and elsewhere during recent centuries.

Sudden expansion of a single brown bear maternal lineage across northern continental Eurasia after the last ice age: a general demographic model for mammals?

The brown bear has proved a useful model for studying Late Quaternary mammalian phylogeography. However, information is lacking from northern continental Eurasia, which constitutes a large part of the species' current distribution. We analysed mitochondrial DNA sequences (totalling 1943 bp) from 205 bears from northeast Europe and Russia in order to characterize the maternal phylogeography of bears in this region.