🟪 ANIMAL OF THE DAY: iberian lynx. Lynx pardinus. found in sw Europe. it is unfortunately endangered for many reasons (roadkill etc), but they are fully Protected under EU law. lots of Breeding programs are going well too.
An Iberian lynx takes its first steps after being released in the Sierra de Arana mountain range near Granada, Spain. Five Iberian lynxes, three females and two males, were released in a mountainous area of Andalusi as part of the LIFE Lynx Connect project to repopulate this native species from the Iberian peninsula in the ecosystems most adapted to its characteristics
Little process of an Iberian Lynx. The conservation success story behind this species inspires me, and encapsulates some of my favorite things about conservation research and science.
In the early 2000's there were less than 90 of these cats in the wild, making them the most endangered feline in the world. They suffered from habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting and decreasing prey populations. Thanks to captive breeding efforts, prey stocking and the creation of protected areas, there are now around 1600 in the wild. Truly amazing.
[ID: photos of three different types of lynx. all three are large cats with tufted ears. the first is a Canadian Lynx which has a thick gray-brown coat. the second is a Eurasian lynx which has a lighter brown coat. the third is an Iberian lynx, which has a thinner yellow coat with black spots. end ID]
Lynxes! These are the eurasian species, both of their names give the right idea: the eurasian lynx lives wide across the continent while the iberian lynx is restricted only to the Iberian Peninsula.
An interesting thing about lynxes is that their patterns are quite variable: they can be spotted, rosetted or almost completely without markings, and these varieties exist within the species or even subspecies. I wrote a little about this here (including melanistic and albino lynxes).