A work from the Brandhoek Collection Wild Beauties of Europe & America 2024
He moves silently. His eyes seem to read the forest even before anything moves there.
The lynx is not an animal that shows itself. It is an animal that is there .
Hardly anyone sees it – and yet its return is one of Europe’s greatest natural wonders.
In Brandhoek's art, the lynx represents perception, dignity, and return. It represents the silent power of what disappears—and yet finds its way back.
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A Portrait of the Invisible
The lynx is Europe's largest wildcat. With its black spotted fur, short tail, and distinctive brush ears, it seems like a relic from another era.
He looks like a riddle watching himself.
Its name comes from the Indo-European word leuk- , meaning "to shine." Indeed, its eyes are so sensitive to light that it can detect prey even on moonless nights.
Wherever it appears, the balance of an entire ecosystem changes – because the lynx is not a hunter out of hunger, but out of precision.
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Of disappearance and rediscovery
Just a few centuries ago, the lynx was widespread throughout almost all of Europe. Then its silent extinction began – through hunting, deforestation, and fear.
In the 19th century, it was considered extinct in Central Europe. Only small populations survived in the remote mountains of Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia.
But since the 1970s, a new chapter has begun.
With reintroduction projects and international protection, the lynx is slowly returning – first to the Alps, then to the Harz Mountains, and later to the Palatinate Forest and the Bavarian Forest.
Today it is considered a symbol of “rewilding” – the return of wilderness to a landscape shaped by humans.
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The return to Germany and Central Europe
The lynx had been extinct in Germany for over 150 years. The first successful reintroduction project began in the Harz Mountains in 1999. Today, around 100 animals live there again—free, independent, and shy.
Since 2016, over twenty lynx from Switzerland and Slovakia have been released into the wild in the Palatinate Forest. Since then, the population has grown continuously: 18 young animals were recorded in 2023 alone.
There's also renewed hope in Baden-Württemberg. After almost two centuries without a lynx, the third animal was released there in 2024 – a quiet but historic moment.
And today there are about 95 lynx living in Bavaria, eleven of them females with offspring.
These numbers sound small, but they mean: the lynx is back.
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One global animal – four species, many stories
There are four species of lynx worldwide:
the Eurasian lynx ( Lynx lynx ),
the Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus ),
the Canada lynx ( Lynx canadensis )
and the bobcat ( Lynx rufus ), which lives mainly in North America.
The Eurasian lynx is the largest of them – and the species that inspired Brandhoek.
It inhabits forests from Scandinavia through Central Europe to deep into Siberia. It is estimated that there are fewer than 50,000 adult individuals worldwide, of which around 17,000 to 18,000 are in Europe.
The Iberian lynx had almost disappeared in the early 2000s – fewer than 100 specimens survived.
But thanks to an unprecedented conservation program in Spain and Portugal, over 2,000 animals are now alive. Its success is considered one of Europe's greatest conservation miracles.
In North America, Canada lynx and bobcats are still relatively stable in distribution, but are struggling with habitat loss and climate change, which is changing their prey spectrum.
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The lynx and us
What makes it so fascinating?
Maybe he's withdrawing.
That he cannot be bought, tamed, or staged.
The lynx represents that form of freedom that can only be observed when one becomes quiet enough.
For that beauty that is expressed not in volume, but in presence.
In a world that wants to make everything controllable, the lynx remains a contradiction.
It reminds us that wilderness is not a place – but a state.
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The lynx in the art of Brandhoek
The Brandhoek work with the lynx was created in January 2024 and is part of the “Wild Icons of Europe & America” collection.
It shows the moment when nature becomes a memory – captured in a quiet, modern setting.
The lynx rests on a designer sofa, but his eyes remain alert.
It is not decorative.
He is a thought.
One question remains:
How much wilderness do we still carry within us – and how much have we already lost?
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An animal as a symbol of preservation
The return of the lynx is more than an ecological event.
It is a story of trust.
About nature’s ability to return – if we give it space.
Every lynx that lives again in European forests today is proof that responsibility pays off.
That protection is worthwhile.
And that beauty, if you let it, always finds a way to become visible again.
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Sources
WWF Europe – Lynx Conservation and Rewilding in Europe
