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The Missing Lynx

Spanish Translation

By Andrea Delbanco

Three weeks ago, three Iberian lynx cubs were born in Doñana National Park, in southern Spain. The Spanish Environment Ministry proudly announced the arrival of the triplets. The cub's birth was cause for celebration. It could be a critical first step toward saving the entire species.

In 1900, there were an estimated 100,000 Iberian lynx in Portugal and Spain. Today, there are thought to be fewer than 200 lynx living in safe, stable communities.

The new cubs and their parents are part of a last-ditch effort to save the cats. Scientists hope to breed lynx and one day release the offspring into the wild. This sort of extreme intervention has never before been attempted with wild cats. A similar program worked for black-footed ferrets in North America. But can it save the lynx?

The Most Endangered Cat
A report compiled by SOS Lynx, a Portuguese conservation group, highlights the urgency of the situation. Although the Iberian lynx is native to Spain and Portugal, it is thought to be extinct in Portugal.

Researchers point to a loss of habitat and food as the main reasons for the decline of the lynx. Lynx mainly eat rabbits. But disease and changes to the environment have killed most of the rabbits in the cats' habitat. The lynx population began to starve. "There is a whole web of life that's not really in balance anymore," Sybille Klenzendorf, the top scientist in the big cats program at the World Wildlife Fund, told TFK.

The lynx is the world's most endangered cat. Other species of wild cat have been critically endangered before. In 1995, Florida's panthers were on the verge of disappearing. Eight female cougars from Texas were transported to Florida and let loose. They began breeding with their endangered cousins. Now the panthers are making a comeback.

This solution will not work for the lynx, though. The cat does not have any relatives with which it could crossbreed. That's why scientists are breeding the Iberian lynx in captivity. With the birth of the cubs, 16 lynx now live in Doñana National Park.

Can the Cats Come Back?
Still, it won't be easy for lynx born in captivity to survive once they are released into the wild. The animals need to learn how to hide, hunt†and†stalk. "That's a very large challenge," Klenzendorf says. "You learn by doing and watching your parents, and that's a very difficult thing to recreate in a captive situation."

In addition to rebuilding the lynx population, scientists are working to save the big cat's habitat. "If you haven't fixed what killed these animals in the first place," Klenzendorf warns, "Then a breeding program really won't do much."

If all of these efforts don't succeed, the Iberian lynx could be the first cat species to go extinct since the saber-toothed tiger ceased to exist 10,000 years ago.

But Klenzendorf refuses to give up on the lynx. "Cats reproduce really quickly," she says. "A cat litter can have many offspring, so if you fix the things that are wrong in the wild, cats can come back pretty fast."

Lynx Are Losing Ground

Length: 26 inches to 32 inches
Maximum weight: 35 pounds
Estimated population: Fewer than 200
Status: Critically endangered
Threats: Illegal hunting and trapping, starvation
Habitat: Forests, scrubland
Man-eater: No
• The world's most endangered wild cat
• Relies on rabbits for 85% of its diet
• As recently as the 1950s, was considered a pest and legally hunted

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