Causes of mortality in reintroduced Eurasian lynx in Switzerland.
Seventy-two lynx, found dead in the Swiss Alps and the Jura Mountains (Switzerland) from 1987-99, were evaluated to determine the cause of death. Seventy-two per cent (52/72) of all animals died because of noninfectious diseases or causes such as vehicular collision and poaching. Eighteen percent (13/72) died from infectious diseases, including some which could have been transferred to the lynx from domestic animals or other wild animals such as panleukopenia and sarcoptic mange. If only radio-tagged animals (included in a monitoring program) were taken into consideration, the percentage of mortality caused by infectious diseases rose to 40%, indicating that infections might be underestimated in randomly found mortality events. We hypothesize that even a few cases of infections in a small population like the lynx, which are additionally threatened by noninfectious causes, may threaten the long term survival of the population.
Schmidt-Posthaus
Heike
H
Centre for Fish and Wildlife Health, Institute of Animal Pathology, University of Bern, Länggass-Strasse 122, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. heike.schmidt@itpa.unibe.ch
Breitenmoser-Würsten
Christine
C
Posthaus
Horst
H
Bacciarini
Luca
L
Breitenmoser
Urs
U
D000059:Accidents / Q000401:mortality*; D000367:Age Factors; D000820:Animal Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D000823:Animal Identification Systems; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D002335:Carnivora; D002423:Cause of Death; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012737:Sex Factors; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology