<b>Protected areas and hunting system affect the survival and longevity of adult female Eurasian lynx in a source–sink population - supplementary material</b>

Female survival is a critical parameter influencing population viability. This study evaluates the impacts of monitoring year, habitat quality, hunting system, and area protection on apparent survival and minimum reached age of adult females in a Eurasian lynx population. Area protection and hunting system significantly affected both survival and age, while monitoring year and habitat quality had no impact. Most females occurred in multiple protection and hunting system categories, but with varying frequencies. Females in National Parks had the highest survival and age, those in Unprotected Landscapes the lowest, and in Protected Landscape Areas intermediate. These differences likely reflect varying levels of law enforcement in protected and unprotected areas. Three distinct hunting system groups emerged: (a) No or National Park Hunting areas, with the highest female survival (~90%) and age, reflecting a near-natural state of the population; (b) Hunting grounds managed by state and private forest owners, with 20% lower survival, suggesting some degree of illegal killing; and (c) Rented hunting grounds, with only ~50% female survival, likely due to lower lynx acceptance among hunters resulting in higher rates of illegal killing. Our findings provide strong evidence that insufficient enforcement of legal protection poses a significant threat to adult female lynx and, by extension, the entire population. Strengthening legal enforcement and improving communication and cooperation with hunters in this region should therefore be a priority for lynx conservation.