Jan 16, 20182 min read

Good News for a Change: The Harz Lynx Project - An old Inhabitant of the Harz has returned! 📽📽

Updated: Apr 4, 2018

The Lynx project Harz was the first in Germany to initiate a resettlement attempt for the largest European cat, the Eurasian Lynx. Today, lynx roam through the entire Harz again and spread into adjacent forests in neighboring countries.

The Harz National Park is a nature reserve set across the Harz Mountains in Germany, a landscape of forest, moors and flowing rivers. (Area: 247 km²). It was established in its current form by the merging of the Upper Harz National Park and the Harz National Park in Lower Saxony in 2006 following the two National Parks uniting. The former German border ran through the Harz and large parts were prohibited areas.

Eckertalsperre, Harz, Germany

The national park is covered almost completely by forest. Characteristic for it’s look are the expansive beech forests and ancient spruce forests in the higher altitudes. The high humidity levels mean that the forest floor is covered with a thick blanket of moss, while many tree trunks are coated with unusual lichen. Even higher, rock formations, stone pits, clear mountain streams and moorland create a wild mountain landscape before the ancient mountain spruce forests are limited by the treeless mountain heath of the Brocken. The Harz mountains are the only German low mountain range to reach a natural tree line. (more info in the following You Tube clip No 1)

Some of the fauna inhabitants of the Harz Forest are red deer, roe deer and wild boar. The rarer animals for example are the Dipper (a songbird), the Black Stork, the Peregrine Falcon and the wild Lynx.

The last known wild Lynx was shot in 1818.

A memorial - the Lynx Stone - is a sad reminder of human hunting activities (“on 17 March on this

spot the last lynx has been shot”).

The Harz National Park “Luchsprojekt” managed in a ten year programme to reintroduce the Lynx back to the forest and with further success in the breeding program there should be 30 - 50 of these beautiful wild cats back in the Harz. An overview of the exact current distribution area of the lynx in the Harz and its surroundings will only be possible with long-term research and evaluation.