Sheep, cow, deer… and now lynx. In order to stop the slaughter of felines already killed on the roads in 2024, the village of Sombacour (Doubs) has just installed “Attention lynx!” signs. “. It is not the first of this type: the village of Onoz, in the Jura, was a precursor at the end of 2022.
But in Sombacour, at the foot of Mont-Calvaire and close to thick forests, three lynx have been killed in two years, the last of which in March. “It was probably the mother who was killed last year, and her two little ones afterwards,” presumes Frédéric Toubin, deputy mayor of the town.
The residents have “a good opinion of these animals, no one wants to kill them”, confides the city councilor, who had four new signs installed on Thursday “Attention lynx! » on the roads of his town to “encourage people to be careful”.
On the “red list” in France
In the center of the triangular reflective metal panels, bordered in red, the motorist can clearly see the black silhouette of an adult lynx, followed by its cub. This signage was thought up and designed by the Athénas Center, which specializes in safeguarding the species, classified as “endangered” on the French “red list” of species threatened with extinction by the World Conservation Union.
To combat the deadly collisions that threaten the spotted feline with its long brush ears, the Jura association has distributed its panels to more than thirty volunteer communities and hopes to raise awareness among more.
In Doubs and Jura, where more than 80% of the 150 adult specimens recorded in France live, 13 lynx have already been victims of collisions in 2024. This is “a completely unprecedented level of mortality”, deplores the director of the structure , Gilles Moyne. For comparison, the association had counted “16 individuals killed on the roads in total in 2023 and 25 in 2022”.
Not possible on departmental and national roads
Collisions in fact represent “one of the main, if not the first”, cause of mortality of the species in France, notes the National Action Plan (PNA) in favor of the lynx launched by the Ministry of Ecological Transition for the period 2022-2026. The PNA plans in particular to “promote exchanges between lynx populations and reduce mortality linked to collisions”.
“Road traffic increases by 2 to 3% per year on the Burgundy-Franche-Comté network (and) in Sombacour, as in other accident-prone areas, we have a very dense road network, which cuts the forest continuity, with “many cross-border workers” who travel to Switzerland, notes Mr. Moyne. “The main lever is the road user,” according to him. “This road sign was implemented on a large scale in Spain and it worked, collisions decreased,” he assures.
The Athénas Center’s approach nevertheless comes up against the impossibility of installing these panels, which are not approved, on departmental and national roads, outside the area of the municipalities. Responsible for installing the signs, the private ranger of Sombacour, Yannick Chevalet, therefore took care to install them on the territory of the municipality, whose wish is to “work towards the protection of the species”.
Detractors
But, despite its discretion, the lynx also has its detractors, regrets Gilles Moyne: “anti-predator activists sometimes destroy the panels that we offer to municipalities, such as in the municipalities of Chenecey-Buillon (Doubs) and Onoz (Jura). ) where several have been broken, dismantled or stolen.
Lynx are sometimes the target of hunters who criticize them for the competition they would face for game. The animal, reintroduced in France where it had disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century, rarely attacks herds.