The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) continues its upward path, although it is still at risk of extinction. The last census in 2023 shows that the species has doubled its population in the last three years and has reached 2,021 individuals, with 1,299 adults or subadults and 722 cubs. Despite the good data, 750 breeding females would be needed to classify the species in a favorable conservation status, and in this latest count 406 have been detected. According to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition in a statement, they are getting closer ” gradually” to the necessary amount, there are 80 more than the previous year, but still insufficient.
Captive breeding centers have played an essential role in this recovery. From 2011 to 2023, 372 lynxes born in the four existing centers have been released. The population has been expanding and last year the reproduction of the species was verified in 14 population centers, in addition to the stable presence in new areas of the Region of Murcia and the provinces of Albacete, Badajoz, Toledo and Ciudad Real. . Most of the specimens, 1,731, 85% of the total, live in Spain and the rest, 291, in Portugal. The stable populations are located in four autonomous communities: Andalusia with 755 specimens (43.6% of the Spanish population), closely followed by Castilla-La Mancha with 715 lynxes (41.3%), Extremadura where 253 specimens were censused. and Murcia with seven.
The ministry considers that these data allow us to “continue to be optimistic”, because the feline’s trend is positive and has continued since 2015, the year in which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lowered its threat level. The species went from being “critically endangered” to simply “endangered.” It was a fundamental step for the survival of an animal that in 2002 was close to extinction when only 94 specimens remained in Andalusia. Captive breeding programs, with significant European investment, which have allowed the creation of different nuclei, have managed to reverse the situation. This increase causes lynxes to approach inhabited places, as happened at the end of March, when a rancher found four lynxes born in his hayloft in Menasalbas, municipality of Toledo.
“We are at an average growth of 20%, a trend that has been maintained due to the creation of three new nuclei, because in some it had declined because they began to be saturated,” indicates Ramón Pérez de Ayala, member of WWF and specialist in the species. To obtain the number of breeding females it is necessary, according to his calculations, to create another five new areas with lynxes. “There were populations that grew a lot, up to 30%, but then they stabilized,” he explains. This occurred in the mountains of Toledo, one of the most successful reintroductions. “There, the first place where they acted was practically saturated, but the lynxes have moved to a neighboring area, which has kept the growth,” he clarifies. The same situation is repeated in other places such as Guarrizas (Jaén) and the same thing happens in Portugal, in the Guadiana valley area.
A reproductive female needs a territory of about 500 hectares, although it all depends on the amount of food available, the more food the less space is needed. The rabbit is the main component of their diet and there are places where the population cannot recover, mainly due to hemorrhagic disease, an infectious disease of viral origin, very contagious, that causes high mortality. It affects both domestic rabbits and wild rabbits, but not humans. Depending on the areas, the drop in the herbivore’s population is between 30% and 87% in a decade, indicates Pérez de Ayala.
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In this boom situation, the feline has its biggest enemy in road accidents, which has become its main cause of mortality. “In 2023 there have been 144 deaths due to this cause, 7.1% of the population, and we cannot forget poaching, which goes unnoticed,” he points out.
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