Dataset: Long-term changes in survival of Eurasian lynx in three reintroduced populations in Switzerland

For conservation or management programs, basic data on vital rates are
important but often hard to acquire for long-lived and elusive wildlife
species such as large carnivores. In this study, we analysed long-term
changes in survival rates for different sexes and age classes (juvenile,
subadult, adult) in three reintroduced Swiss lynx populations (Alps, Jura,
Northeastern Switzerland). A novel modelling approach allowed us to
combine picture data from camera-trapping and lynx pictures resulting from
chance observations, telemetry data and dead-recoveries over a monitoring
period of 25 years (1997–2022). Mean annual survival of adult lynx varied
between 0.71 and 0.81 for males and between 0.70 and 0.85 for females.
Mean survival of subadults ranged between 0.59 and 0.89 among populations.
Juvenile survival was highly variable and low on average (< 0.4).
Our findings highlight that unknown sources of mortality exist in some
populations and that future studies on mortality causes and potential
effects of inbreeding on survival are needed to ensure long-term
conservation of the lynx in Switzerland. Our study can serve as a basis
for future studies on population viability and conservation threats to the
species in human-dominated landscapes and demonstrates the complexity and
high variation of survival between different age and sex classes in space
and time, potentially leading to source sink dynamics.