A wildlife camera has snatched a photo of a lynx in the Ardennes region of Belgium, with officials hailing it as the first concrete proof that the feline has returned to the country after nearly two centuries.
The celebrated photo was captured on 27 August by Maarten Cuvelier, a volunteer at wildlife associations Landschap vzw and Welkom Wolf.
Landschap said that Cuvelier's photo "removed all doubts" of the presence of the large feline in the country, following decades years of reported sightings which officials could not conclusively confirm.
https://www.facebook.com/landschapvzw/posts/3246878802070249
More than twenty-five (25!) years after the first reports of lynx in the Ardennes, there is now finally indisputable evidence of its presence there," the agency wrote on Facebook,
In a separate online statement that the photo brought "rock hard" evidence of the feline's return to the country, but added it was unclear for how long it had returned to the territory.
The lynx are the largest European feline is recognisable for its very short tail and its characteristic tufts of black hair at the tips of their ears.
The photo in August was taken in the Ardennes region of Belgium, with officials saying the most recent sighting suggests that the feline has been in the area for years or "at lest regularly visits it."
"Its presence in Belgium may be a result of recent or even older reintroduction projects in Germany, where an estimated 140 lynx are already found again," Landschap wrote.
The Brussels Times
