The Iberian Lynx

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The Iberian Lynx

CAT NEWS
Issue 9, Autumn 1988

Plans have been announced for programmes to save the Iberian lynx Lynx pardina, also known as the Spanish and pardel lynx, which is one of the most endangered species in Europe. Only about 400 are believed to survive in widely fragmented populations, mainly in the southwestern quadrat of Spain and in two or three places in Portugal.

ADENA, the Spanish national organisation of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), has announced that it will devote a considerable part of its resources to conservation of the lynx, which it declares fits into the main objective of preserving biological diversity, as the project benefits other species in the lynx’s range, including the Spanish Imperial eagle Aquila heliaca adalberti, black vulture Gyps monachus and mongoose Herpestes ichneumon.

The project envisages the protection of surviving lynx and their habitats, and rehabilitation and repopulation of areas from which it has disappeared. Both central and provincial authorities are to be made aware of the grave situation of the lynx as well as of the Mediterranean ecosystems and their living constituents, so that the international agreements that Spain has accepted are respected.

The Spanish National Nature Conservation Institute, ICONA, has published a management plan for the lynx in the Doñana National Park, near Cadiz in southwestern Spain. This is the centre for research on the lynx.

The 570 km² Dobana Park and surrounding areas, totalling of about 2,000 km², are estimated to have 40-50 lynx, which frequent Mediterranean maquis.

ICONA’s management plan, prepared by Dr Miguel Delibes and ICONA staff, envisages improving the Doñana ecosystem where lynx are found to increase the rabbit population. Measures will include reducing the wild and domestic ungulates which compete with rabbits for pasture, and control of the competing fox population. In areas where there are no lynx, habitat will be made more suitable by eliminating eucalyptus plantations as soon as possible, and managing pine plantations so as to improve their capacity to support higher densities of prey species. A scientific study is proposed to monitor the effect of the management measures on the lynx population and to learn more of the lynx's way of life.

The authorities responsible for areas surrounding the Doñana will be urged to take measures to reduce the unnatural mortality of lynx. Most urgent measures are to control traffic on the main road to the coastal resort of Matalascabas; protection of open areas in the zone; total prohibition of traps for rabbits and carnivores; and improvement of all potential biotopes for lynx.

A booklet summarizing information about the Iberian lynx has been published by the Environmental Agency of the Province of Andalucia. The booklet, entitled "El Lince Ibérico" is by Dr Juan F. Beltrán, of the Doñana Biological Station.

This lynx is considerably smaller than the northern lynx Lynx lynx, with an average weight of males 12-13 kg (individuals twice that weight have been found) and is much more spotted. The main food is the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, with which it is thought to have evolved. Diminution of rabbit numbers, due especially to mixomatosis, is considered one of the main factors in the decline of the lynx, which has also suffered from hunting and massive destruction of habitat. Although protected by law since 1966, lynx get caught in rabbit snares and are killed in road accidents, as well as being poisoned.

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