Jan Kelchtermans

Wildlife guide and tracker at Naturetrek

Very few people have experience of seeing a lynx in the wild but Jan has been tracking them since 1999, with more than ten sightings. That number might help to give a sense of how elusive it is. naturetrek.co.uk

“In the beginning I was a birder but now I’m more focused on large carnivores, especially in Europe.

I first saw a lynx on 18 July 1999. We were out for a nightjar and we came across a lynx on the road. The party in the car was crazy.

“It’s not easy. I guide several tours for Naturetreks and that one is really the hardest, but in the end we mostly always succeed. I’ve seen them in Poland, Sweden and Norway. We follow the tracks in winter when there is snow and it’s really a mission impossible without snow. Three things really make the tracking very difficult. First of all, it’s a very shy animal. Secondly, it’s always on the move. And thirdly it is nocturnal most of the time. Also they occur in vast forested areas, so once you start following tracks in the snow and approach the animal it has mostly vanished. They sometimes call it the Phantom of the Forest.

“The other way to find them is when they are calling in March and April. It’s much easier if you find two animals, trying to make connection with each other. And then there is by scanning from vantage points. Their main prey is hare and roe deer, so if I’m in an area I always try to know where the animals are at the moment, where the tracks are and then I start thinking, ‘okay, the animal will be more or less there’.

“And then there is the most important strategy, spotlighting. You go out once it gets dark and drive around shining a torch. You have to be familiar with the type of eye-shine though, because otherwise you’ll stop for every deer and red fox.

“You need a good telescope, because it’s mostly very distant, but I can remember one tour when we found one animal by noon, just sitting alone in the snow. We watched it for three or four hours.”