This lynx feels right at home. Lias is his name. He's one of the few lynx in southern Germany. A mate（助手） and young cubs would make his life complete. And if he can't find（找到） them here, it could threaten（威胁） the whole lynx population in Europe. Humans could help and introduce females into this area.

  Inconceivable for some in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. Hunters, for example. I'd be worried about species diversity（差异）. Creditors（债权人） don't just live on love and life. They survive on other animals. Others see the lynx as a symbol of species diversity and a healthy natural environment.

  They want the lynx to return. Seeing a lynx in the wild is like winning the lotto. If you see one of these animals, it's a singular opportunity that you're not likely to get again in your life. Armin Hafner is a hunter and lynx expert. He's driving through his hunting ground in the Upper Danube Valley. Hafner is looking for traces（痕迹） of his prodigy（惊人的事物）, Lias.

  He's been doing this for three years, since the young lynx has been roaming（ 漫游） through the region. Researchers have fitted Lias with the GPS tracking collar. Armin helped them do it. Let's see where he's hiding. Hafner receives a text of the coordinates（坐标） of Lias' location every few days. Look here.

  The first track. He likes taking this way, and he often uses paths from many hundreds of meters. If you go back, he ran along here. If the lynx stays in one place a bit longer, he may find something. There it is. For what's left.

  Here we found the kill. It's a piece of roe（[动](=roe deer)狍(分布于欧亚两洲)） deer. There's not much left. He was here for two nights. That's why there's a lot of tracks. I suspect（怀疑） that other predators（掠夺者） were here too.

  A fox. It would be a lot for a lynx to eat in two days. And then Hafner is pleased by a little discovery. He's found lynx scat（爵士音乐中无意义的音节的演唱）. And it smells of cat. Excellent.

  Several lynx have already been in Armin Hafner's territory（领土）, but Lias has stayed the longest. Lias came from Switzerland. A photograph documented（记载） his route. It was taken in the Yura Mountains near Geneva. The lynx expert explains that the cats can be clearly identified because of their distinctive（有特色的） coats. They're like fingerprints.

  In Lias' case, the proof（证据） came from this striking（打击的） curve（曲线） on his left shoulder. That's how the researchers knew that Lias traveled 350 kilometers to the Danube Valley. You could say it was at the time a European record. It had never been proven that lynx could travel so far. Lias made it. It took three days.

  Then Lias showed up. He smelled the bait（饵） on the other side of the trap（陷阱） and walked past. But in the darkness（黑暗）, the trap（陷阱） worked. Scientists from the Forest Testing and Research Institute（研究所） carefully and quietly approached（向…靠近）. Lias was sedated（给…服镇静剂） with a dart（标枪） from a blowgun. When the drugs took effect, Armin Hafner could take the animal out of the crate.

  A moving moment. The most important thing is seeing that Lias is healthy and doing well. You can see that from his weight. We didn't find any injuries at all. It's really something special to hold him in my arms again. They needed to work fast.

  The sedation wouldn't last long. Lias was examined and got a new GPS tracking collar. That was another exciting story. It's great that everything worked and we could put a tracker on him again. The new batteries mean Lias can be tracked（ 跟踪） for the next two years. The scientists are hoping to get a great deal of information from the data Lias provides.

  The aim is to allay（减轻） fears and introduce the lynx to hunters. A tracking collar on this animal is extremely valuable. It's important to cooperate（合作） with the hunting community like now and that this information is shared. Lias is released in just under an hour. All the data the collar transmits（传输） end up in the hands of Michael Hardfelder, one of the leading lynx experts in Baden-Württemberg. Hardfelder and his team assessed（评定） the data here at the Forest Testing and Research Institute（研究所） in Freiburg.

  Lias isn't the only lynx with a collar. There have been four so far. They all came from Switzerland and all were male and almost all left the region again. Lias nearly made his way back to the Alpine（高山的） country. Here you can see that he took a long jaunt up to the Swiss border. That's Schaffhausen Canton.

  Then he came back again. It's very clear that during mating season they move around but he's there to find females. He got as far as the autobahn. We'll see what comes next. During the mating season, Lias may leave after all. Unfortunately, there are no female lynx in his area.

  The ladies don't dare（ 敢） to cross the Rhine, but if there aren't any females on the German side, the population will remain unstable（ 不稳定的）. Even though Germany has promised the EU to help the animals return… It's very clear that we need female animals to talk about reproduction（繁殖） and the local population. That will only happen if females are settled（安排） here. It's not likely that female lynxes will migrate（移动） through these settled（安排） areas soon. Humans have to resettle（(使)重新定居） the animals. For some that's a problem.

  Sheep farmer Volker Mosman of Lauterbach says that his grazing herds and those of others have created a unique（唯一的） cultural landscape（风景）, one with great biodiversity（生物多样性）. But the sheep are on the lynx's menu too. Mosman has already discovered several dead animals. It was typical lynx. The corpse（尸体） was well hidden. So well that even we wouldn't have found it if it had decayed（衰退）.

  We only found it by chance. There wasn't much left. The shoulder bones and the ear tags（标签） and a few other bones.