Saving a species: The slow return of the Iberian lynx

Navarro – a male lynx with leopard-like spots – calls out as he walks towards a camera trap during mating season.

Less than 100 cm (39 in) long and 45 cm tall, Iberian lynxes are a rare sight. But there are now more than 2,000 individuals in the wild in Spain and Portugal, so you’re more likely to see them than you were 20 years ago.

“The Iberian lynx was very close to extinction,” says Rodrigo Serra, who manages the breeding program in Spain and Portugal.

At the lowest point, the two non-interacting populations had less than 100 lynx left, and only 25 of them were females of reproductive age.

“The only cat species at this level of threat was the sabre-toothed tiger thousands of years ago.”

The decline in lynx numbers was partly due to more land being used for farming, increased road deaths and the struggle for food.

Wild rabbits are important prey for lynx, and two pandemics have caused their numbers to decline by 95%.

By 2005, there were no lynx left in Portugal, but the first litter born in captivity was seen in Spain.

It took another three years for Portugal to decide on a national conservation action plan to protect these species. A National Breeding Center for Iberian lynx was built in Silves in the Algarve.

Here they are monitored 24 hours a day. The goal is twofold – to prepare them for life in the wild and to pair them for reproduction.

Serra speaks in a whisper, because even from a distance of 200 m you can stress the animals in the 16 garages where most of the animals are kept.

Sometimes stress is just what lynxes need.