The Beasts That Are Hard To Meet

Large carnivores in Czech land

Large carnivores are important for the ecosystem. By selecting the weak and sick animals as their prey, they limit spreading of diseases in nature. Because they impact the population of the ungulates, the damage of the vegetation is reduced. Even though human is trying to manage the population of ungulates, the effect is not the same and this management is costly.

There are three kinds of the large carnivores in Czech Republic – Eurasian Lynx, Grey Wolf and Brown Bear. All of these carnivores are protected by the national and europian legislation. The Eurasian Lynx lives in Beskydy Mountains, Šumava National Park and around the area of Šumava. It is the most numerous large carnivore in the country. Poaching is a big issue limiting the expansion of the lynx population.

Grey Wolves live in packs, and they need huge territories. There were around 15 wolf packs, which lived at least partly in the Czech Republic in 2018. The big issue with this carnivore is that people are scared of them. Especially people from the country side are afraid that wolves would kill their domestic animals. There is an ongoing discussion regarding wolves coming back to the Czech nature.

The Brown Bear lives in Beskydy Mountains, and people are scared of this animal too. There have been few cases of a bear coming closer to human houses and looking for food in their trash bin in front of the house, or damaging a hive to get honey.

Meeting any of the large carnivore is very rare in the Czech Republic. The animals always choose a runaway if they have a choice. Wearing a jingle bell in the areas where these animals occur helps the animals to notice a person in beforehand and avoid a possible meeting.

Source:selmy.cz