Accord to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Belgium and adjoining areas of neighbouring countries have enough suitable habitat to accommodate around 75 lynxes in the wild. At the Semois Valley National Park in Wallonia more than 100 hectares of peripheral forest and clearings within the forest will be created by 2026 to encourage lynxes to settle there.
The Eurasian lynx had not been seen in the wild in Belgium for a century until, in August 2020, a wildlife camera in the Semois Valley captured footage of a lynx that was living in the wild there. Six months later the animal, was spotted again and a year later, lint from its fur was found. One thing is clear: the lynx is not just passing through, it wants to settle here.
WWF asked the Geography Department of the Humboldt University in Berlin to examine which areas of southern Belgium would provide suitable habitats for lynxes and how well connected lynx populations in neighbouring countries are geographically.
The Humboldt University found that that Belgium has room to welcome some 75 wild lynxes. There are two areas that are suitable: the Semois Valley National Park in the Ardennes, on the border with France, and the High Fens-Eifel Nature Park on the border with Germany.
Both these areas are located in hill ranges and cover large expanses of forest with differences in altitude. There is also little human activity there that could disturb the animals.
A lynx turning up in Belgium came as something of a surprise. The nearest confirmed lynx population is a group of about 16 lynxes that live around 180 kilometres from the Semois Valley, in the Vosges and Palatinate forests in France and Germany. Unlike wolves, lynx rarely travel such long distances.