Iberian Lynx walkonthewildside.org

Many are under the impression we have two species of wild cats in Europe, the Eurasian lynx and the European wildcat.
This is to be considered a common knowledge among most people.....
We do know the Sumatran tiger is almost extinct, the amur tiger endangered and we worry deeply about the beautiful snow leopard!
Since these cats all live in the third world, most of us find it sad but understandable.
With economical development there is education and with knowledge you protect nature, so this could never happen here.
Actually we could not be more wrong!

There is a third species of wild cat in Europe, and this is the most endangered big cat on earth, the Iberian lynx.

This cat is not only endangered to the brink of total extinction but also unknown to the majority of us.

It is getting wiped out in silence.

The Iberian lynx is known by experts and by EU representatives but not to the common European.
Since unknown, there is little opinion to help save the few individuals left!!

That makes the Iberian lynx so very vulnerable to traffic, hunters, loss of prey and habitat but also regional-, national- and EU politics.

The other day a telegram announcing the birth of three Iberian lynxes was on the Swedish national news every thirty minutes most of the day..
In the afternoon one of the major newspapers had it as well.

Fine one would think, but what is so special about that....

Early this morning I had a mail from sos-lynx telling me about the cubs born the day before and I already had some pictures sent to me including a baby picture of the mother to the three newborns.
What a luck!!
This day I happened to work with the early morning news and I asked the editor if he would be interested in using the pictures and make a telegram about it.
Luckily it was one of the nice editors so he agreed to do so.

The impact of all this came as a shock to me....

It would never have made it to the news, if it wasn't for chance and a series of events.

How can we care, if we do not know?

Situation is not totally hopeless.

Good things are being done,

The three cubs are born by Saliega and there is a good chance more cubs will be born by this spring.

At least 2 of the females have come into season within the last couple of weeks.

Various organizations (including the Spanish and Andalusia Governments, WWF Spain and Fundacion CBD Habitat) are working to conserve the lynx in the field.

Three cubs were born on Monday March 30 to two adults, Sali and Garfio, both of whom had been found in the Sierra Morena mountains as young animals and recovered by vets working for the Spanish national and regional governments.

The birth of the cubs is a ray of hope in the fight to save the Iberian Lynx, the worlds rarest wild cat, from extinction. Latest government estimates put the total confirmed wild population of adults at between 100 to 120.

The success of the breeding programme is testimony to the dedication and skill of those involved, including the staff at the El Acebuche breeding centre in the Donana National Park, the Zoo Jerez vetinarary team that recovered the animals, and the members of the Iberian breeding committee, including reporesentatives of the Spanish government-s Environment Ministry and the Junta de Andalusia regional government.

The plan is to build up a founder population to help secure the survival of the species, and eventually to start reintroducing animals back into the wild.

At present, there are two known breeding groups in the wild. One is in the Andujar mountains, in north-east Andalusia, in southern Spain. The other is in and around the Donana National Park, in south west Spain. The Doñana lynx population is the smaller of the two known breeding populations, with around 20-25 adult lynx, and about 13 cubs being born here in 2004 from about 6-8 reproducing females.

This is the habitat where the Iberian are suppose to hunt, find food and live. Not much there for them to survive on let alone raise their young.

This sign warns people of the Lynx crossing, but still they are killed by fast cars speeding down the road past them

• High non-natural mortality; due to hunting and fast road traffic –

Ministry of the Environment, Biological Station of Doñana, the Doñana Foundation,

To help support lynx conservation in Andújar, Andalucían politicians need to urgently approve a Regional Lynx

Those interested should call on the President of Andalucía, to urgently politically approve such an official plan,

Good work is being done to conserve lynx in Andújar. However, there are concerns about proposals by the

Ayuntamiento de Andújar to reclassify a 1000ha area within and adjacent to the lynx area for urbanisation.

Unfortunately, the Ayuntamiento de Andújar is still proposing to reclassify the 1000 ha area

Many houses have been built illegally here over recent years, and the proposal will legalise these constructions –

setting a dangerous precedent – and will also allow the rate and number of constructions to increase in the future.

Many organisations and individuals – including the Spanish Government’s official Lynx Working Group –

However, in order to ensure that the proposal is not implemented, and that instead the area is re-classified

conservation projects by the existing LIFE project and WWF/Adena have contributed to the stabilisation of the

In addition, it has now been confirmed that the population range expanded to the west in 2004 to include

It is important that this successful conservation is allowed to continue and be expanded through the success

of a new lynx LIFE project and by avoiding damaging development such as the urbanisation proposal.

Our thanks to Gary Roberts for his permission to use his photos of the Iberian Lynx.