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201218Apr19:33

Again captive-​born Iber­ian Lynx released into the wild

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 18 April 2012 | mod­i­fied 19 April 2012
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Recently, the release of three young cap­tive born-​and-​bred Iber­ian lynx (Lynx par­di­nus) spec­i­mens was another high­light of the suc­cess­ful res­cue plan of Life Lince, a Span­ish project sup­ported by the Euro­pean Union’s Life programme.

Although, the Iber­ian lynx is still one of the world’s most endan­gered wild cat species together with the Amur leop­ard, there’s some hope it can be saved from going extinct.

With its lus­trous, spot­ted coat, kohl-​rimmed eyes and tufted ears, the Iber­ian lynx would not look out of place in Africa or Asia. But this is Europe’s big cat. And the lynx that dozens of peo­ple came out to see today to be released could be the key to sav­ing this species.

The sit­u­a­tion was really dra­matic: there were only two pop­u­la­tions left in the wild. In order to pre­serve this species, we had to cre­ate a cap­tive pop­u­la­tion in case the wild pop­u­la­tion became extinct

Miguel Simon, direc­tor of the Lynx Life project »

The cat was once wide­spread across Spain and Por­tu­gal. But in 2005, its num­bers plum­meted to just 150, earn­ing it the unen­vi­able title of being the most threat­ened of the world’s 36 wild cat species. One of the key fac­tors in this animal’s cat­a­strophic decline was the loss of its main food source: rab­bits, which were wiped out by disease.

Habi­tat destruc­tion has also been a major prob­lem for the lynx. The sit­u­a­tion was so des­per­ate that con­ser­va­tion­ists in Spain were forced to take rad­i­cal action: remov­ing some of the cats from the wild and putting them into cap­tiv­ity to breed, in an attempt to boost numbers.


New home

Under­stand­ing the repro­duc­tive behav­iour of these shy and soli­tary cats has not been easy. But over the past five years, breed­ing cen­tres in Jaen and the Donana National Park, both in Andalu­cia, have been extremely suc­cess­ful and there are now around 100 cats in cap­tiv­ity. And in the wild, thanks to work to enhance the felines’ habi­tat, num­bers are up too — the pop­u­la­tion has grown to 300 cats.

With this dou­ble suc­cess, con­ser­va­tion­ists are ready to put the next part of their res­cue plan into action: releas­ing captive-​born lynx into the wild.

Dr Simon said: “The Iber­ian lynx is a key species in the Mediter­ranean ecosys­tem. It is a top preda­tor, and if we pre­serve this species, we are pre­serv­ing the whole ecosys­tem. “It is our her­itage, and we have to pre­serve it for future gen­er­a­tions.” Lynx Life has care­fully selected an area in Sierra Morena for the ani­mals’ new home.

The habi­tat is per­fectly suited to the felines: it is a hilly, forested region, packed with shade for the cats to sleep in when the fierce Span­ish Sun becomes unbear­ably hot. Most impor­tantly, though, there are plenty of rab­bits — with­out them, the lynx can­not sur­vive. Today, a large group of peo­ple have arrived to see how the cats respond to their new home. They are excited at the rare prospect of a pos­i­tive news story for this belea­guered ani­mal. Three young captive-​born cats from La Olivilla breed­ing cen­tre in Juan have been selected for the release.

First steps

The team from Lynx Life has given them a care­ful check-​up, to ensure they are in good health. They have also been fit­ted with radio col­lars, allow­ing the con­ser­va­tion­ists to track them and mon­i­tor their progress. Every­thing is rid­ing on the suc­cess of today. If this goes well, the hope is that it will pull the Iber­ian lynx back from the brink of extinction.

As the cats are released, they are a lit­tle con­fused at first, unsure of their new sur­round­ings. But after ten­ta­tively tak­ing a few steps, they bound into the wild, ready to explore their new home.

iberian lynx release

The Lynx Life team admits that rad­i­cal inter­ven­tion like this is a last resort. But if it works, these cats together with the two captive-​born females released on Decem­ber 2010 (of which one died August 2011) could be the first of many to roam free once again. A total of 15 releases have taken place this year, and if new pop­u­la­tions begin to estab­lish, more and more of the cap­tive cats will be intro­duced to the wild. Even­tu­ally, the con­ser­va­tion­ists would like to extend the scheme across Spain and Portugal.

Dr Lopez, a vet­eri­nar­ian with the Lynx Life project, said: “Just a few years ago, every­thing seemed so dif­fi­cult, and now we are approach­ing the suc­cess­ful con­ser­va­tion of the species. We are look­ing at the land­scape, and think­ing: ‘Yes, we can do it’.”

The above news item is reprinted from mate­ri­als avail­able at BBC News. Orig­i­nal text has been edited for con­tent and length.

(Source: BBC News, 12.04.2012; Life, 18.02.2011; web­site Life Lince)

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