Urs Breitenmoser

• University of Bern

Aim Indigenous range maps are fundamental documents in biogeography, phylogeny and conservation. We define the indigenous range of a species as ecoregions (or parts of ecoregions) where the species was likely found before humans became a major factor shaping the species' distribution, beginning at a time when the geographical alignment of the conti...

The report Large carnivore distribution maps and population updates 2017 – 2022/23 is based on the latest information and provides the best available overview of brown bear (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), wolf (Canis lupus), golden jackal (Canis aureus), and wolverine (Gulo gulo) distributions and population sizes at a European continent...

Monitoring species distribution over time and understanding factors and mechanisms that determine it is crucial for effective conservation planning. We estimated the current jaguar Panthera onca distribution in South America based on a large set of records (2,557) from 2000–2020 and a set of absence points (both field collected and randomly selecte...

Jaguars Panthera onca in South America are now found in only about half of the area they occupied in the early 20th century, and the rate of their decline is still high. The two most important drivers of the current decline are: a) deforestation and other habitat transformation and fragmentation, and b) killing jaguars related to conflicts with cat...

We analysed the current conservation status of the jaguar Panthera onca in north- western South America (7.14 million km2 in total). The area is composed of habitats belonging to three eco-regions: the Andes, the Llanos, and the Amazon. Based on a large set of jaguar presence-absence data and a species distribution model, we estimated the current j...

Monitoring species distribution over time and understanding factors and mechanisms that determine it is crucial for effective conservation planning. We estimated the current jaguar Panthera onca distribution in South America based on a large set of records (2,557) from 2000–2020 and a set of absence points (both field collected and randomly selecte...

Large parts of the formerly continuous jaguar Panthera onca range have been lost or fragmented. We performed an analysis with Linkage Mapper to evaluate connectivity between all 92 patches of the 2020 jaguar range in South America. We used two Linkage Mapper tools: (1) the Linkage Paths to calculate the cost-distance values and to select least-cost...

In this article, we make a proposal on how to apply the so-called SCALP criteria for evaluating records, originally developed for the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx, to the European wildcat.

Of all the ways human beings have modified the planet over the last 10,000 years, habitat loss is the most important for other species. To address this most critical threat to biodiversity, governments, non-governmental actors, and the public need to know, in near real-time, where and when habitat loss is occurring. Here we present an integrated ha...

Decreasing genetic diversity, gene flow rates and population connectivity can increase inbreeding rates and extinction risks. Asiatic cheetah is a critically endangered mammal with large home range that suffered from extreme range reduction and population decline. Their population is now fragmented into two subpopulations. We used genetic markers t...

My research work is on the evolutionary biology of African lions, with focus on behavioral ecology mechanisms for coexistance. Current projects include longterm ecological studies on Serengeti lions, Conflict mitigation through conservation translocation to foster coexistence at the interface and trophy harvest monitoring and evaluation of hunted p...

As the top predator in African ecosystems, lions have lost more than 90% of their historical range, and few countries possess strong evidence for stable populations. Translocations (broadly defined here as the capture and movement of lions for various management purposes) have become an increasingly popular action for this species, but the wide arr...

Knowledge on diet composition allows defining well-targeted conservation measures of large carnivores. Little is known about ecology of critically endangered Asiatic cheetah, especially the overall diet and its possible regional differences. We used cheetah scats, metabarcoding technique and microsatellite markers to assess the individual and overa...

Abstract When wild‐caught Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) from the Slovak Carpathian Mountains were reintroduced to Central Switzerland in the early 1970s and spread through the north‐western Swiss Alps (NWA), they faced a largely unfamiliar landscape with strongly fragmented forests, high elevations, and intense human land use. For more than 30 years, r...

The reintroduction of lynx Lynx lynx to the Palatinate Forest with adjacent suitable habitats in France, Switzerland and Germany spurred the interest to augment the international cooperation to exchange information, develop harmonized approaches and to establish supporting organisational structures. Thus, the Expert Committee Lynx has been establis...

The project Status and Conservation of the Alpine Lynx Population SCALP is an ongoing programme aiming to coordinate the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx monitoring, conservation and management activities in the Alps, but the monitoring approach has recently been expanded to the neighbouring Dinaric and Jura Mountains. The long-term goal of the SCALP is to...

The use of captive-born lynx for reintroduction programmes has been controversially discussed in the past, but projects such as the reintroduction in the Harz Mountains have demonstrated that zoo-born lynx can adapt to living in the wild. However, phylogenetic considerations require that the zoo-based population is known and that subspecies are bre...

The Balkan lynx Lynx lynx balcanicus is a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx distributed in the south-west Balkans, with relict populations in the Mavrovo National Park and surroundings in North Macedonia and the Munella Mountains in Albania, and with single individuals in Bjeshkët e Nemuna, western Kosovo. In 2015 the Balkan lynx was assessed as Crit...

Switzerland has become an important source of Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx for reintroduction projects in Europe. It is now widely accepted that translocations of animals are associated with a serious health risk. Therefore, the development of multidisciplinary expertise and the elaboration of veterinary protocols are needed, which require knowledge on...

All animals, including carnivores, adapt their daily activity duration and distribution to satisfy food demands, breed, or avoid mortality risk. We used the kernel density method to estimate daily movement activity levels and movement activity patterns of jaguars in Hato Piñero, in Venezuelan Western Llanos, based on 3,656 jaguar detection time rec...

This reference provids a link to the Dryard repository with shapefiles at 10 x 10 km resolution for the distribution of Brown bear, Eurasian lynx, Grey wolf, and Wolverine for the period 2012 - 2016.

Large carnivores are currently disappearing from many world regions because of habitat loss, prey depletion, and persecution. Ensuring large carnivore persistence requires safeguarding and sometimes facilitating the expansion of their populations. Understanding which conservation strategies, such as reducing persecution or restoring prey, are most...

By compiling a wildcat catalogue of georeferenced digital photographs from Southwest Asia, we investigated the plausibility of phenotypically identifying Felis silvestris caucasica (Caucasian wildcat), Felis lybica ornata (Asiatic wildcat) and Felis lybica lybica (African wildcat) through external phenotypic traits, in order to verify their known d...

The Eurasian lynx (subspecies Lynx lynx carpathicus) was reintroduced to Switzerland in the 1970's. Health monitoring of the reintroduced population started in the late 1980's. Since then, six lynx have been found affected by a myocardial disease. The earliest case was an animal that died after a field anesthesia. Two lynx were found dead, two were...

In Switzerland, the European wildcat (Felis silvestris), a native felid, is protected by national law. In recent decades, the wildcat has slowly returned to much of its original range and may have even expanded into new areas that were not known to be occupied before. For the implementation of efficient conservation actions, reliable information ab...

Spatial and foraging ecology of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) has been well recognized, however due to the distinct taxonomic position and geographic isolation of its Balkan population, it is important to learn and compare its ecology to other populations of this felid. Therefore, the paper offers the first ever investigation into the spatial and f...

With an estimated < 50 adult individuals remaining, the Critically Endangered Balkan lynx Lynx lynx balcanicus is one of the rarest, most threatened and least-studied large carnivores. To identify priority conservation areas and actions for the subspecies, during 2006–2014 we conducted 1,374 questionnaire surveys throughout the potential range of t...

Predator diet composition and kill rates have to be known in order to quantify predation pressure on prey populations. While ground-truthing of GPS location clusters (GLCs) is a reliable method for finding large- and medium-sized prey items, finding the remains of small prey is still considered a major difficulty. In this study, we searched GLCs of...

The Eurasian lynx is of special conservation concern based on the European Union's Habitat Directive and its populations need to be maintained or restored at favourable conservation status. To evaluate lynx population status, appropriate monitoring needs to be in place. We modelled the distribution dynamics of lynx in the Alps (200 000 km2) during...

The Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx population in the Carpathian Mountains is considered to be one of the best preserved and largest in Europe and hence is a source for past and current reintroduction projects in central Europe. However, its status in Slovakia has been reported to the European Commission on the basis of hunters´ reports and expert estimate...

Recent discovery of leopard reproduction in two sites at the south-western rim of the Lesser Caucasus and the Talysh Mountains give hope for a recovery of this regionally Critically Endangered large cat. Increasing fragmentation of the entire range of the Persian leopard Panthera pardus tulliana may however hamper the natural recolonisation of the...

In mammals, the chemical profiles of individuals are complex and variable mixtures, and animals perceive information based on variation in the overall quality of these mixtures. A variety of compounds potentially involved in chemical communication have been characterized in the urine of different felid species, but little is known about the informa...

The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe has seen many countries rush to construct border security fencing to divert or control the flow of people. This follows a trend of border fence construction across Eurasia during the post-9/11 era. This development has gone largely unnoticed by conservation biologists during an era in which, ironically, transbou...

The costs of signalling are often expressed in terms of increased predation risk to the signaller; however, whether signalling predators also incur costs due to eavesdropping by prey and may attempt to reduce these costs is less well studied. In this study, we investigated whether there is a trade-off between intraspecific communication through sce...

The status of leopard in Iraq and south-eastern Turkey has been unclear for decades. Because of recent and on-going armed conflicts in important parts of the potential leopard distribution range, no studies were done that could have proved the presence of the species. We report here 10 confirmed and 2 unconfirmed leopard records between 2001 and 20...

The future management of the wolf population in Switzerland requires knowledge about the size of packs and the number of young (BAFU 2010). Therefore, we must now develop a monitoring, allowing us in the future to register all packs, resident pairs, resident solitary wolves, and as many transient (dispersing) solitary wolves as possible within Swit...

Camera-trapping of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) was carried out during 60 nights, from 5th December 2014 to 3rd February 2015 in north-eastern Switzerland. 54 sites were sampled using pairs of camera-traps, in order to picture both flanks of the lynx to ensure individual identification. The camera traps operated during 3156 of the theoretically 3240 c...

Shape files of current and historical distribution maps of large carnivore species in Europe. Also available from http://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.986mp

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 larg...

Scent-marking is widespread among mammals and has been observed in many felid species. Although the behaviour is well-described, little is known about its function in wild felid populations. We investigated patterns of scent-marking and its role in intra- and intersexual communication among resident and non-resident Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx by obser...

During November 2010–February 2011, we used camera traps to estimate the population density of Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx in Ciglikara Nature Reserve-Turkey, an isolated population in South-west Asia. Lynx density was calculated through spatial capture-recapture models. In a sampling effort of 1093 camera trap days, we identified 15 independent indivi...

Moqanaki E., Breitenmoser U, Kiabi B. H., Masoud M. & Bensch S. 2013. Persian leopards in the Iranian Caucasus: a sinking ‘source’ population? Cat News 59, 22-25. Supporting Online Material

Persian leopards Panthera pardus saxicolor in the Caucasus have suffered a major decline in numbers and extent of occurrence, and are now restricted to a few populations in north-western Iran. This perception bases on sporadic field observations and a sign survey conducted in 2004. To establish an updated basis for the current status of Iranian Cau...

We studied the influence of surveyed area size on density estimates by means of camera-trapping in a low-density felid population (1-2 individuals/100 km(2) ). We applied non-spatial capture-recapture (CR) and spatial CR (SCR) models for Eurasian lynx during winter 2005/2006 in the northwestern Swiss Alps by sampling an area divided into 5 nested p...

Despite formidable challenges and few successes in reintroducing large cats from captivity to the wild, the release of captives has widespread support from the general public and local governments, and continues to occur ad hoc. Commercial so-called lion Panthera leo encounter operations in Africa exemplify the issue, in which the captive breeding...

Population size and distribution of a target species are among the most important features in conservation biology. By knowing these parameters, an effective management for conservation can be applied in the range countries of its distribution. This is particularly relevant for the smallest and long-term isolated autochthonous populations of the Eu...

Large carnivores (bears Ursus arctos, wolves Canis lupus, lynx Lynx lynx and wolverines Gulo gulo) are among the most challenging group of species to maintain as large and continuous populations or to reintegrate back into the European landscape. Political, socioeconomic and society changes challenge past management approaches in some of the large...

Camera‐trapping of Eurasian lynx was carried out during 60 nights, between end of february and end of april 2012 in the north eastern parts of Switzerland. With the help of the local game wardens, fifty‐two sites were sampled using pairs of camera‐traps mounted along forest roads and path in order to picture both flanks of a lynx to ensure positive...

Preface Iran’s high geographic, topographic and climatic diversity at the crossroad of three continents has created globally and regionally important natural landscapes and ecosystems which supports a rich biodiversity. Iran is home to, at least 197 mammalian species from 10 orders and 38 families, including 10 species of felids. However, habitat l...

The project Status and Conservation of the Alpine Lynx Population (SCALP) is an ongoing program aiming to co-ordinate the lynx monitoring and propose conservation activities in the Alps. The SCALP project was initiated from several active lynx researchers as an informal group in the early 1990s twenty - years after the reintroductions in Switzerlan...

We have carried out a baseline survey in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azer-baijan, in order to reveal the status of the Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxi-color, assess human attitudes towards the species and increase local capacity in wildlife monitoring techniques. On 9 September 2012, one of our camera-traps took a photo of a leopard at Zan...

Inferring the distribution and abundance of a species from field records must deal with false‐negative and false‐positive errors. False‐negative errors occur if a species present goes undetected, while false‐positive errors are typically a consequence of species misidentification. False‐positive observations in studies of rare species may cause an...

We evaluated the status of lynx in the Swiss Alps for the period 2005– 2009. Even though the number of lynx presence signs remained almost stable between the present (2,068 signs) and previous pentad (2,091), there was a 7.6% increase in the area occupied by the 5-km circular buffers around the confirmed lynx signs of presence over the five years p...

The remnant population of Balkan lynx Lynx lynx martinoi is small, isolated and highly threatened. Since 2006 a conservation project has surveyed its status and promoted its recovery in Albania and Macedonia. Eurasian lynx are often associated with conflicts of an economic or social nature, and their conservation requires a focus on the people shar...

The mission of the Cat Specialist Group (CatSG) is to support and advance the conservation of all free-living cat species. The CatSG is one of over 100 such groups of the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Today, CatSG members are engaged in major conservation projects throughout the world and share their knowledge...

The Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx is widely distributed in Asia, but is one of the least-known cats. Despite being the largest small cat in Iran, general information about lynx previously consisted of a few historical records (>15) and anecdotal observations from various sources. From 2006–2009 we conducted surveys by means of literature reviews, questio...

Definition of source sites. (0.08 MB DOC)

Estimating financial costs for effective protection and monitoring at source sites, and present expenditures. (0.06 MB DOC)

Source sites listed by country. (0.07 MB XLS)