The slow return of the Iberian lynx

With his tiger-like spots, Navarro – the male wasp – calls out during mating season as he approaches the camera trap.

Just short of 100cm (39 inches) long and 45cm high, the Iberian lynx is rare. But now there are more than 2,000 in the wild in Spain and Portugal, so you are more likely to see them than 20 years ago.

“The Iberian lynx was very close to extinction,” said Rodrigo Serra, who is in charge of the reintroduction program in Spain and Portugal.

At the bottom there are less than 100 lynxes left in the two communities that did not merge, and only 25 of them were females of reproductive age.

The only endangered species at this level was the saber tooth tiger thousands of years ago.

The decline in the lynx population has been partly due to more land being used for agriculture, an increase in road kills, and the struggle for food.

Wild rabbits are important prey for the lynx and two pandemics have led to a 95% decline in their numbers.

In 2005, Portugal had no lynx left, but it was also the year Spain saw its first litter born in captivity.

It took another three years before Portugal decided on a national conservation plan to save these animals. The National Center for the Breeding of Iberian lynxes has been established in Silves in the Algarve.

Here they are monitored 24 hours a day. The purpose is two-fold – to prepare them for life in the wild and to mate for reproduction.

Serra speaks in a whisper, because even if you are from a distance of 200m you can cause stress to the animals in the 16 pens where many animals are kept.

Sometimes, however, stress is just what lynxes need.

“When we see that the litter is starting to gain confidence, we go in and chase them and make noise so that they get scared again and climb the fences,” said Serra. “We train them not to approach wild people.”

That is partly for their protection, but also to keep them away from people and their animals. “A lynx should be a lynx, not treated like a house cat.”

Therefore lynxes never associate food with people, they are fed through a tunnel system in the center.

Then, when the time comes, they are released into the wild.

Genetics determine where they end up, reducing the risks of breeding or disease. Even if the lynx was born in Portugal it may be transported to Spain.

Pedro Sarmento is responsible for reintroducing the bee to Portugal and has studied the Iberian lynx for 30 years.

“As a biologist, there are two things that strike me when I hold a snake. It’s an animal with a small head in the body and incredibly wide paws. That gives them momentum and the ability to jump which is rare.”

The breeding program and the return of the lynx has been hailed as a great success, but as their numbers rise there may be problems again.

Since lynx are often released on private land in Portugal, production planners must first reach an agreement with the owners.

Where these animals go after that is up to them, and although there have been attacks on chicken coops, Sarmento says there haven’t been many.

“This can cause discomfort among local people. We have been reinforcing the coops so that the lynxes cannot access them, and in some cases we are constantly monitoring the lynxes and scaring them if necessary.”

He tells the story of Lítio, one of the first lynxes released in Portugal.

Lítio stayed in the same place for six months but the group lost track of him.

He eventually made his way to Doñana, a nature reserve in southern Spain where he originally came from.

Since Lítio was ill, he was treated and returned to the baby production team in the Algarve.

A few days after he was released from the facility, he began to return to Doñana, swimming across the Guadiana River to reach Spain.

He disappeared for a while, but was eventually brought back to the Algarve.

When he was released for the third time, Lítio did not return to Spain but instead walked 3km (two kilometers), found a woman and never moved again.

“She’s the oldest queen we’ve had here, and she’s had a lot of lambs since then,” Sarmento said.

Three decades after Spain decided to save the lynx, the species is no longer endangered, and Sarmento hopes to reach a good conservation status by 2035.

For that to happen, numbers need to reach 5,000-6,000 in the wild.

“I saw these animals disappearing. It’s amazing that we are in a place where we can see lynx in nature or by holding a camera almost every day,” said Sarmento.

The reproductive team is not complacent and there are risks involved in their work. Last year 80 percent of people died on the roads.

However, for now they feel confident that the Iberian lynx has been saved.