Study area
The study was part of research conducted by Foundation conservation Carpathia (FCC) to estimate the density of lynx in the Romanian Carpathians (Iosif et al., 2022). The study area is situated in the Southern Carpathians, Romania, covering 1,200 km2 in the eastern part of the Făgăraș Mountains, Piatra Craiului, and parts of Leaota Mountains (Figure 1). The altitude of the study area ranges from 600 to 2400 meters. Forests cover most of the area (62%), along with a mosaic of urban-rural landscape and agriculture with significant areas of natural vegetation (22%), and alpine grasslands and subalpine shrubs (16%). Although bisected by a high traffic national road, the area is recognized as a corridor for large carnivore dispersal. The road network is dominated by unpaved forest roads and temporary logging roads. Large carnivore hunting is not allowed in the study area. However, anthropogenic disturbance persists in the form of year-round selective logging, regulated hunting of ungulates, and livestock grazing.