Portfolio de naturaleza

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Threats such as habitat destruction, rabbit decline, loss of genetic variability and unnatural mortality have pushed the Iberian lynx to the limit. With this story I seek to document the new lines in the history of the Iberian lynx conservation.

Descripción del proyecto:

At the beginning of the century, in 2003, a census was carried out to know the real situation of the Iberian lynx. The result jumpe he most successful and recognized conservation programs.

Threats such as habitat destruction, rabbit decline, loss of genetic variability and unnatural mortality have pushed the specie to the limit.

Different projects were carried out with alternative purposes. The latest efforts focus on (without neglecting the rabbit’s delicate situation due to the fact they are the main food, and sadly, they are also threatened for the virus) recovering historical populations and connecting them. For this connection, ex-situ breeding program becomes important, motivating, as well, the genetic diversity increase. 

Moreover, the lynx expansion has been  surprise: they have conquered a habitat that was thought to be unsuitable for settlement and breeding, the olive groove. These plantations are the most abundant in Andalusia, the community with the largest lynx population. Olive grooves are a great hope for expansion and connection between different populations. Although this is a good new, it is a threatened at the same time because of the large number of roads that fragment the landscape. 

Collaboration with game reserves or the good attitude of the rural guards towards the species have favored the success of the project so, one of the most beautiful stories is about a breeding of a lynx family in an abandoned haystack inside one of this states. This story is a nice symbol of the lynx-human relationship. 

These two decades of work traslade into a population increase to 800 specimen currently, going through the critically endangered status in 2015 in the UICN Red list to endangered at present. Even so, there is still a long way to go. The experts consider the species don’t be out of danger until 2040. 

With this story I seek to document the new lines in the history of the Iberian lynx conservation. The recovery of the historical distribution, actions on threats and the effort of different entities that has led to an improve of the specie status.