15 February 2017
15.02.2016 - Within the framework of activities for monitoring protected areas and inventorying biodiversity, the Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection has continued to carry out the activity of placing trap cameras in protected natural areas, specifically in both National Parks, Sharri and Bjeshkët e Nemuna.
IKMN officials on 09.02.2017 were on a field visit to the Deçan Gorge, within the Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park, where a trap camera placed some time ago near the Kozhnjer Reserve was retrieved. It is believed that this area is a possible movement zone for a large number of wild animals, with particular emphasis on the lynx (Lynx lynx) as well as the species that this rare animal feeds on.
After checking the cameras, besides some common species previously photographed such as: the European hare (Lepus europaeus), the wild boar (Sus scrofa), the red deer (Cervus elaphus), etc., after a fairly long period of monitoring the state of the fauna through this method, it was observed for the first time that the rare and highly endangered Balkan lynx (Lynx lynx ssp. balcanicus) had been photographed.
Some of these cameras have been placed for quite some time in different parts of the Sharri National Park and the Bjeshkët e Nemuna, with the sole purpose of monitoring the state of the fauna and the presence of different species of wild animals.
These cameras have so far provided reliable data on the presence of different species of wild animals in these protected areas.
This type was previously recorded on trap cameras set up by the NGO ERA in the Rugova region, but this is the first time it has been encountered in this part of the National Park.