Distribution of large carnivores in Europe 2012 - 2016: Distribution maps for Brown bear, Eurasian lynx, Grey wolf, and Wolverine

Regular assessments of species’ status are an essential component of
conservation planning and adaptive management. They allow the progress of
past or ongoing conservation actions to be evaluated and can be used to
redirect and prioritise future conservation actions. Most countries
perform periodic assessments for their own national adaptive management
procedures or national red lists. Furthermore, the countries of the
European Union have to report on the status of all species listed on the
directives of the Habitats Directive every 6 years as part of their
obligations under Article 17. However, these national level assessments
are often made using non-standardised procedures and do not always
adequately reflect the biological units (i.e. the populations) which are
needed for ecologically meaningful assessments. Since the early 2000’s the
Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (a Specialist Group of the IUCN’s
Species Survival Commission) has been coordinating periodic surveys of the
status of large carnivores across Europe (e.g. von Arx et al. 2004;
Salvatori & Linnell 2005, Kaczensky et al. 2013). These have
covered the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), the wolf (Canis lupus), the brown
bear (Ursus arctos) and the wolverine (Gulo gulo). These surveys involve
the contributions of the best available experts and sources of
information. While the underlying data quality and field methodology
varies widely across Europe, these coordinated assessments do their best
to integrate the diverse data in a comparable manner and make the
differences transparent. They also endeavour to conduct the assessments on
the most important scales. This includes the continental scale (all
countries except for Russia, Belarus, Moldova and the parts of Ukraine
outside the Carpathian mountain range), the scale of the EU 28 (where the
Habitats Directive operates) and of the biological populations which
reflect the scale at which ecological processes occur (Linnell et al.
2008). In this way, the independent LCIE assessments provide a valuable
complement to the ongoing national processes. Our last assessments covered
the period 2006-2011 (Kaczensky et al. 2013; Chapron et al. 2014). The
current assessment is mainly based on the period 2012-2016 and broadly
follows the same methodology. The population definitions used in
this report broadly follow those proposed in Linnell et al. (2008) and
described in Kaczensky et al. (2013). However, as these were always
intended to be dynamic definitions there have been a few small changes,
namely the upgrading of the lynx in the Harz mountains to being a
population (formerly they were viewed as an “occurrence”), and the
exclusion of the wolves in the Sierra Morena mountains of southern Spain
because of their regional extinction.  Additional information on
issues related to large carnivore status assessment is available in other
reports. For example, Linnell & Cretois (2018) summarise data on
large carnivore depredation on livestock, Linnell (2013) summarises data
on social conflicts associated with large carnivore recovery, and Boitani
et al. (2015) summarises key actions required to address the main threats
facing large carnivores in Europe. References Boitani, L., F. Alvarez, O.
Anders, H. Andren, E. Avanzinelli, V. Balys, J. C. Blanco, U.
Breitenmoser, G. Chapron, P. Ciucci, A. Dutsov, C. Groff, D. Huber, O.
Ionescu, F. Knauer, I. Kojola, J. Kubala, M. Kutal, J. Linnell, A. Majic,
P. Mannil, R. Manz, F. Marucco, D. Melovski, A. Molinari, H. Norberg, S.
Nowak, J. Ozolins, S. Palazon, H. Potocnik, P.-Y. Quenette, I. Reinhardt,
R. Rigg, N. Selva, A. Sergiel, M. Shkvyria, J. Swenson, A. Trajce, M. Von
Arx, M. Wolfl, U. Wotschikowsky, D. Zlatanova, 2015. Key actions for Large
Carnivore populations in Europe. Institute of Applied Ecology (Rome,
Italy). Report to DG Environment, European Commission, Bruxelles. Contract
no. 07.0307/2013/654446/SER/B3 Chapron, G., Kaczensky, P., Linnell,
J.D.C., von Arx, M., Huber, D., Andrén, H., López-Bao, J.V., Adamec, M.,
Álvares, F., Anders, O., Balčiauskas, L., Balys, V., Bedő, P., Bego, F.,
Blanco, J.C., Breitenmoser, U., Brøseth, H., Bufka, L., Bunikyte, R.,
Ciucci, P., Dutsov, A., Engleder, T., Fuxjäger, C., Groff, C., Holmala,
K., Hoxha, B., Iliopoulos, Y., Ionescu, O., Jeremić, J., Jerina, K.,
Kluth, G., Knauer, F., Kojola, I., Kos, I., Krofel, M., Kubala, J.,
Kunovac, S., Kusak, J., Kutal, M., Liberg, O., Majić, A., Männil, P.,
Manz, R., Marboutin, E., Marucco, F., Melovski, D., Mersini, K.,
Mertzanis, Y., Mysłajek, R.W., Nowak, S., Odden, J., Ozolins, J.,
Palomero, G., Paunović, M., Persson, J., Potočnik, H., Quenette, P.-Y.,
Rauer, G., Reinhardt, I., Rigg, R., Ryser, A., Salvatori, V., Skrbinšek,
T., Stojanov, A., Swenson, J.E., Szemethy, L., Trajçe, A.,
Tsingarska[1]Sedefcheva, E., Váňa, M., Veeroja, R., Wabakken, P., Wölfl,
M., Wölfl, S., Zimmermann, F., Zlatanova, D. & Boitani, L. 2014.
Recovery of large carnivores in Europe’s modern human-dominated
landscapes. Science 346(6216): 1517-1519. Kaczensky, P., Chapron, G., Von
Arx, M., Huber, D., Andrén, H. & Linnell, J. 2013. Status,
management and distribution of large carnivores - bear, lynx, wolf and
wolverine - in Europe. Istituto di Ecologia Applicata, Rome, Italy.
Linnell, J.D.C., Cretois, B., 2018. Research for AGRI Committee – The
revival of wolves and other large predators and its impact on farmers and
their livelihood in rural regions of Europe. Research for AGRI Committee –
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and their livelihood in rural regions of Europe, European Parliament,
Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels. Linnell,
J.D.C. 2013. From conflict to coexistence: insights from
multi-disciplinary research into the relationships between people, large
carnivores and institutions. Istituto di Ecologia Applicata, Rome.
Linnell, J.D.C., Salvatori, V. & Boitani, L. 2008. Guidelines for
population level management plans for large carnivores in Europe. A Large
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Commission (contract 070501/2005/424162/MAR/B2). Salvatori, V. &
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