‘Lucky’ man photographs red lynx in eastern Turkey

TUNCELİ

A lynx, a wild cat in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, has been photographed in the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli. 

Muzaffer Akyüz, an electrician, was returning from work in Tunceli’s Pülümür district when he spotted the animal on the roadside.

“I had seen lynxes in various areas in this region but I could not photograph them. I was lucky this time as I had my camera. She had two of her babies behind her, but I could not photograph them,” Akyüz told local media.

The first Eurasian lynx in Tunceli was photographed in 2012, when two of them approached urban areas due to heavy snow.

Hunting of the lynx was banned in Turkey in 1990, which helped conservation efforts.

However, threats from legal and illegal logging as well as illegal poaching exists.