Yesterday, together with a colleague, we went on a lynx tracking snowshoe walk in Lahemaa National Park, one of the best areas for Eurasian lynx watching tours in Europe. During the walk, we found fresh tracks of roe deer, moose (elk), wild boar, pine martens, polecats, three different wolves and many other forest animals. However, the most fascinating discovery was the movement pattern of a male Eurasian lynx.
From the tracks it was clear that the lynx had been actively sniffing and scent-marking tree stumps, hummocks, broken branches and other prominent objects in the landscape. After following his trail for some distance, we also found his droppings. Lynx, like most cats, usually hide their droppings, so encountering them openly is rare. Such visible signs strongly indicate active territorial marking by a male lynx, signalling the approach of the mating season.
The Eurasian lynx mating season peaks in March, and this is also the time when lynx are easier to observe and track than during the rest of the year. For this reason, March is considered the best period for lynx watching and lynx tracking in Estonia, and it is exactly why we schedule our Eurasian lynx tours in Europe for this time.
Two of our Estonia lynx tours are already fully booked, but there are still a few places available on our Eurasian Lynx Wildlife Tour starting on 16 March: