The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is a mostly solitary animal. It usually shares its home range with an individual of the opposite sex largely avoidingdirect contact. The female tolerates its offsprings until they become independent. Micro-social relationships between individuals are very difficult to monitor. We had a rare opportunity to simultaneously observe a territorial male and female who shared their home range in the area of Mala gora near to the town of Ribnica in southern Slovenia. The studied individuals were active mainly at dawn and dusk. They were most active during the pre-mating season and least active during partruition. Home range size analysis (95% MCP) showed that both the male (154 km2) and female (60 km2) had significantly smaller home ranges than the average for this species. Although the male and female's home ranges overlapped completely throughout the year, except during the female's pregnancy (96% overlap), direct encounters were not frequent. In approximately nine months of monitoring, they were only 24 times in direct contact. In this study, we detected an extremely rare case of induced estrus of female Eurasian lynx in nature. Upon arrival of the male lynx on the female's home range, the male induced the female's estrus and fertilized her in the first week of June, when the female should have already given birth. Our results are in general comparable with the results from similar researches.
|