The Iberian lynx is back from the brink of extinction, thanks to conservation efforts

MADRID– Things are getting better for him Iberian lynx.

A little more than two decades ago, the pointy-eared wildcat was on the brink of extinction, but as of Thursday the International Union for Conservation of Nature says it is no longer an endangered species.

Successful conservation efforts mean the animal, native to Spain and Portugal, is now barely a vulnerable species, according to the latest version of the IUCN Red List.

In 2001, there were only 62 mature Iberian lynxes (medium-sized, mottled brown cats with characteristic pointed ears and a pair of beard-like tufts of facial hair) in the Iberian Peninsula. The disappearance of the species was closely related to that of its main prey, the European rabbit, as well as habitat degradation and human activity.

Alarms were raised and breeding, reintroduction and protection projects were initiated, as well as efforts to restore habitats such as dense forests, Mediterranean scrub and pastures. More than two decades later, in 2022, the nature reserves of southern Spain and Portugal It contained 648 adult specimens. The latest census, from last year, shows there are more than 2,000 adults and youth, the IUCN said.

“It’s really a huge success, an exponential increase in population size,” Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List unit, told The Associated Press.

One of the keys to its recovery has been the attention paid to the rabbit population, which had been affected by changes in agricultural production. Their recovery has led to a steady increase in the bobcat population, Hilton-Taylor said.

“The largest recovery of a feline species ever achieved through conservation (…) is the result of a committed collaboration between public agencies, scientific institutions, NGOs, private companies and community members, including landowners, farmers, forest guards and local hunters,” Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, who coordinates the EU-funded LIFE Lynx-Connect project, said in a statement.

The IUCN has also worked with local communities to raise awareness of the importance of the Iberian lynx in the ecosystem, which has helped reduce animal deaths due to poaching and road kill. Additionally, farmers receive compensation if cats kill any of their animals, Hilton-Taylor said.

Since 2010, more than 400 Iberian lynx have been reintroduced to parts of Portugal and Spain, and now occupy at least 3,320 square kilometers, an increase from 449 square kilometers in 2005.

“We have to consider everything before releasing a lynx, and approximately every four years we review the protocols,” said Ramón Pérez de Ayala, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s species project in Spain. WWF is one of the NGOs involved in the project.

While the latest update to the Red List offers hope for other species in the same situation, the lynx is not out of the woods yet, says Hilton-Taylor.

The biggest uncertainty is what will happen to rabbits, an animal vulnerable to virus outbreaks, as well as other diseases that could be transmitted by domestic animals.

“We are also concerned about issues related to climate change, how the habitat will respond to climate change, especially the increasing impact of fires, as we have seen in the Mediterranean in the last two years,” Hilton-Taylor said.

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Brooks reported from Copenhagen, Denmark.