The beautiful large eurasian bobcat was thought to have been extinct in Western and Central Europe as recently as 1900. The decimated populations have survived only in the Pyrenees, the Balkans, Carpathians and Scandinavia. For the last thirty years, there have been attempts at reintroducing the bobcat to Jura and the Alps, each with differing success. The author describes the geographical distribution and number of the bobcat populations, as well as the reasons for their decrease and the recreation programme in the Alps.