[Animals] This is how the new home of the Iberian lynx is sought in northern Spain a century later

[MussicOnPro!]

A project promoted by the Government identifies three areas in Catalonia and Aragon for reintroduction and seeks the "essential" support of municipalities and the livestock sector

In the lynx saga, like humans, from time to time individuals appear predestined to mark paths and discover new worlds. They are born, in the biological sense of the term, already travelers, full of adventurous genes. Lithium, which was baptized in 2018 as the Marco Polo of the lynx after crossing the Peninsula from end to end, is possibly one of the most exploratory specimens that have been detected. And now, three years after its journey, the specimen has become the driving force behind a project to recover the historic lynx lands of northern Spain.

"Litio marked the way, yes", recalls the technician of the CBD-Hábitat Foundation, Samuel Plá, from a plateau of the Sierra de Agramunt, in the north of Lleida, from where you can see an extensive blanket of bushes and trees that can be seen loses on the horizon, already in the lands of Aragon. In 2018, the male of Lynx pardinus born in the El Acebuche breeding center (in Doñana, Huelva) managed to get from Portugal to Santa Coloma de Cervelló (just 15 minutes from Barcelona), where he was found on a farm after crossing roads , rivers and mountains. It was the first Iberian lynx seen in Catalonia for a century after being declared extinct. Although apart from the striking data, the most interesting thing about his trip, according to the experts, was that it showed that in the future it was possible to create corridors that would connect the po[CENSORED]tions throughout the Peninsula: the next step to prop up the future of a species that It came out of critical danger of extinction in 2015, although it remains threatened.

The Sierra de Agramunt, surrounded by municipalities dedicated to the countryside and livestock, is one of the three territories between Catalonia and Aragon in which the PreLynxCatAr preliminary project studies reintroduction. It is the first step before a "still very future", says Plá, released from lynxes, which in any case has to have the support of the local po[CENSORED]tion, highlight its promoters. In this phase, experts study the rabbit po[CENSORED]tion, the cat's livelihood, and risks (such as roads) are assessed. The preliminary project is developed by the CBD-Habitat and Crew Foundation Foundations, and is financed by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition, with support from the Generalitat and the Government of Aragon. In addition to other collaborations such as the Barcelona Zoo, the Lleida Provincial Council, and Trenca.

Before the Sierra de Agramunt, the technicians have carried out work in the Alcubierre mountain range (in Los Monegros, Aragón) and in the Mas Melons area, also in Lleida. “Here [in the Sierra de Agramunt], around 22,000 hectares have been surveyed out of a total of 70,000 of the optimal area,” says veterinarian Xavier Rovira, director of the Crew Foundation.

This species has been saved thanks to efforts made over 20 years, through funding received by the EU-funded program Life Nature. Currently, the CBD-Habitat foundation is part of the Life Lynx Connect program, endowed with 18.7 million euros in five years, where 21 partners act jointly, between Administrations, NGOs, companies, hunters, whose coordinator is the Junta de Andalucía. In this project, the creation of two new lynx areas is foreseen, one in Lorca (Murcia) and the other in Sierra Arana (Granada). In Valencia, there is another project already started by the Cardenal Herrera University, announced in June and also endorsed by the Government, to study the reintroduction of the animal in that community. "Despite being different projects, they all go along the same line: to be able to unite po[CENSORED]tions with corridors in the future," Pla says.

Plá describes why the Lleida area complies with the first parameters that make it an aspiring lynx territory: “the scrubland covers between 30% and 60% of the territory; there are few roads; the minimum density of rabbits is exceeded; open areas for it to hunt… ”, he says in one of his work days, which EL PAÍS attends. A few meters away, his colleague and project technician Antares Bermejo analyzes the terrain. GPS in hand, he travels routes online while counting the number of rabbit latrines in his path. One of the peculiarities of small mammals, he explains, is that they always defecate in the same place to mark territory. “So for each stretch of land with excrement that we find, it is suspected that it belongs to a specimen. Thus, we can know approximately how many there are per hectare ”. The plague of rabbits and its damage to crops are one of the factors that the director of the foundation, Núria El Khadir Palomo, puts in value before the next and "essential" step: convincing the local po[CENSORED]tion, hunters, to farmers, in general to all groups that live in the area, where the plague has become one of the main headaches of the peasants.

“It is not true that when you have an emblematic species on your farm, such as the lynx, they will prohibit you from doing activities. Far from that, the lynx, thanks to its function as a superpredator, controls the densities of other carnivores, recovering the balance of the ecosystem favoring other species such as the partridge ”, says El Khadir. The biologist explains that a useful experience is that of farmers and owners from Andalusia and Extremadura who transmit experience and information to colleagues from other territories who may be reluctant at first.

"Now that there is so much talk about emptied Spain, the animal values areas in regression", defends El Khadir precisely next to an abandoned farmhouse in the Sierra de Agramunt. Samuel Pla takes advantage of the symbolic place and launches: "Can you imagine that in a few years between these collapsed walls the first lynxes born in Catalonia will be sheltered?".

LINK: https://elpais.com/espana/catalunya/2021-10-31/asi-se-busca-el-nuevo-hogar-del-lince-iberico-en-el-norte-de-espana-un-siglo-despues.html