Compared to the rest of the Alps, Valais is home to five to eight times fewer lynxes, with only a dozen individuals identified. The Sedun biologist Raphaël Arlettaz wanted to know why. From 2011 to 2016, he conducted a study with other researchers. Pre-published August 16 in the journal bioRxiv, she concludes, as reported on Friday by the RTS and the NZZ, that it is poaching which explains the low presence of the protected mammal.
Read also : In 2018, Raphaël Arlettaz already mentioned the hypothesis of poaching
To support this hypothesis, the researchers put forward the existence of a network of 17 traps, discovered near Dorénaz, between 2011 and 2015. Raphaël Arlettaz, cited by lematin.ch, adds that it is “quite likely that some level of poaching also occurs in other parts of the township, but relying on methods other than snare traps, which we only found in the main immigration corridor to Valais. “
The professor at the University of Bern accuses the canton of not sufficiently fighting this phenomenon. The Hunting Service contested it, in a program Mise au Point which will be broadcast on Sunday.
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