Lynx in Estonia

Estonia has an estimated population of between six and seven hundred Lynx and they are increasing alongside a substantive increase in their main prey, the Roe Deer.

Estonia is a small country, but not that small! So finding even one of these creatures would require a lot of luck unless one has the help of experienced Lynx spotters who have been finding and studying these fabulous animals for many years. We’ll concentrate our efforts in two rather special national parks, Lahemaa and Matsalu. Lahemaa’s atmospheric landscape of bogs, forests and unspoilt bays with still traditional fishing villages has been spared the ravages of the past century by dint of being the first national park designated in the former Soviet Union. Matsula is by contrast a much more open landscape with a mosaic of often extensive marshy meadows and forest. The later in particular has a thriving population of prey species with Roe Deer everywhere and abundant Brown Hare too.

We’ll find the weather perhaps rather cool but the Lynx won’t be noticing as spring is definitely in the air for them – it’s the mating season and for the month from early March to early April they are out and about far more than is usual. Excessively secretive for much of the year, they now take to the open, at least more than the rest of the year, in search of a mate. These Lynx are amongst the largest of the breed and so an adult male is quite an impressive beast. We can’t guarantee sightings but we’ll not want to for trying and we’ll hope for more than one sighting too. The researchers and your guides have a network of trap cameras watching the movements of the Lynx as well as helpful technology such as thermal imaging scopes and LED lamps to aid in our search. We’ll concentrate much of the searching effort between just before sunset and midnight.

During our search for Lynx we’ll undoubtedly come across some of the commoner mammals that inhabit Estonia’s mix of forest and bogs. Roe Deer as mentioned are common nowadays and we’ll likely see Moose more than once, especially in Matsalu where they are rather common. Pine Martens are very active at this season and Brown Bears will have recently woken and be wandering round forests where they are, like the Lynx, easier to spot at this time of year. Snow Hares are common and we’ll also likely see the strange Raccoon Dog. We are very likely to come across Eurasian Beaver and have a decent chance of Wolf too. Golden Jackal has recently turned up in Matsalu and seems to have successfully colonized the area.

The coasts of Matsalu will give us another tour highlight as here is the southernmost breeding population of Ringed Seals. We’ll be able to see the adults hauled out on the sea ice or on rocks, and hopefully their white-coated pups which are born during in March. Though mammals will be very much our aim we’ll no doubt have sightings of Black Grouse and Hazelhen as we search the forests and Woodpeckers are easy to spot at this season, notably Three-toed and White-backed Woodpeckers. Evening excursions will yield various owls as well – Ural Owl, Long-eared Owl and Pygmy Owl among them. Areas of unfrozen sea off coastal Matsalu will give us the chance to enjoy a lot of sea duck such as Long-tailed Duck, Common Eider and Scoters and we may also come across Snow Buntings and Common Cranes.