[Animals] The lynx reaches 1,668 copies: half the way to stop being considered endangered

[Draeno]

 

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) continues its expansion and goes from record to record. The latest census, published this Friday, brings to 1,668 ―1,105 adults or subadults (between one and two years old) and 563 puppies― the number of individuals released in 2022, with 300 more individuals than the previous year. This figure places the cat's po[CENSORED]tion halfway towards being classified as fully viable and out of danger, indicates the conservation organization WWF. The species, still in danger of extinction, will reach a favorable conservation status when the census manages to place between 3,000 and 3,500 individuals with 750 breeding females -currently, there are 326-. There is still a long way to go, but the results invite optimism, given that at the start of the recovery program 20 years ago, only 94 lynx survived in the wild on the Iberian Peninsula, in two separate corners of Andalusia (Doñana and the Sierra de Andújar). He was one step away from going under.

The lynx working group coordinated by the Ministry for Ecological Transition highlights in the annual monitoring report the continued upward trend of the species since 2015, but observes "the significant increase" with caution due to the degree of threat it still supports. In total, 563 births have been recorded in 2022, with a global productivity ―number of pups born per breeding female― of 1.72.

In the Iberian Peninsula there are 15 nuclei with stable presence of specimens, most of them are located in Spain, except for one located in Portugal, in the Guadiana valley, with 261 individuals. The areas with the greatest abundance of specimens are found in the Sierra Morena environment, with 782 lynxes; the Montes de Toledo, with 272; the Guadiana Valley, where 261 individuals live, and the Matachel area, in Extremadura, which is home to 138. Spain is home to 84% of the total po[CENSORED]tion, and Andalusia is the place with the largest number of lynxes, followed by Castile-La Mancha and Extremadura.

"The success of the po[CENSORED]tion of the mountains of Toledo is surprising, which has achieved 53 females, equaling the area of Andújar, and that of Portugal, where 49 females have been recorded," says Ramón Pérez de Ayala, responsible for the lynx in WWF. This is very good news, "because it means that we have achieved large po[CENSORED]tions," he adds. The key to success is the abundance of rabbits, essential in the lynx's diet, and there are many areas where the herbivore has almost disappeared, attacked by various pests, and its recovery is complicated.

The ascendant line of the species can only be maintained by the artificial creation of new lynx breeding sites. "The problem with natural dispersal is that it has to happen that a male and a female are in the same place and that, in addition, it is the mating season," explains Pérez de Ayala. On occasions, they have observed how a female spent time in a new territory and thought "this is going to be a good area", but when heat came, she returned to her place of origin when she could not find a mate. In 2022, a new reintroduction area began in Sierra Arana (Granada) and Lorca (Murcia) received three specimens in February of this year. Work is underway to locate suitable land in Castilla-La Mancha or Madrid, “but it takes time”, points out the WWF expert.

While humans explore possible reintroduction areas, female lynxes in the wild surprise, from time to time, breeding in places as unlikely as inside a wooden box in an inhabited farmhouse in the Matachel valley (Badajoz), to the surprise from the owner. Or in the disused barn of a private farm in Ciudad Real, in Sierra Morena, which they have turned into a regular delivery room and which this year a mother and daughter have shared to have their litters.

 

https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2023-05-19/el-lince-llega-a-los-1668-ejemplares-la-mitad-del-camino-para-dejar-de-estar-considerado-en-peligro.html