Lynx Tracking — Jura Mountains Switzerland

The Jura mountains of northwest Switzerland and adjacent French Jura host one of Central Europe's most successfully reintroduced Eurasian lynx populations — around 100 animals in a transboundary limestone range of ancient forest and open karst plateau — and guided winter tracking expeditions from the Swiss Lynx Project operating out of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Saignelégier offer the best chance of encountering lynx sign and occasionally the animals themselves in a mountain landscape of considerable beauty. Fresh pugmarks in deep January snow lead trackers through ancient silver fir and beech forest, past kill sites where roe deer have been taken and cached in the snow, to resting spots where the lynx's characteristic bed in soft snow remains pressed perfectly into the forest floor. The Jura lynx are monitored individually by camera trap and DNA analysis, and the tracking guides can often identify which named animal has passed by based on pugmark size and gait pattern — adding a biographical dimension to each encounter. The Jura landscape of limestone cliffs, frozen waterfalls, and ancient beech forest under heavy winter snow is one of Switzerland's least-visited and most beautiful winter landscapes, entirely contrasting with the Alpine skiing resorts an hour to the south. Barn owls hunt the Jura's open karst fields in winter alongside the lynx territories.