In a flash, Vírgula starts from a box and descends the hill towards freedom.
With its pointed ears and a spotted brown coat, the Iberian lynx is very impressive.
The one year old female was released last Monday in Los Milientos, an isolated domain located in Estremadors, in the far west of Spain. For the first time, it tastes wild life after being born in captivity as part of a breeding program aimed at restoring its species.
This reintroduction program, which started 20 years ago, will end the year. The days of lynx releases like that of Vírgula are therefore counted.
Save a endangered species of extinction
At the beginning of this century, the Iberian lynx was on the verge of extinction in Spain, its workforce having been decimated by an incessant hunt and diseases ravaging its favorite food: the rabbit.
With less than 100 individuals still alive, the Pardinus lynx was about to share the fate of the dodo.
This is how “Life Lynx Connect” started, a project of several million euros supported by the European Union, the Spanish and Portuguese governments, the regional authorities and private companies, which saved this wild feline.
Since 2005, lynx has been raised in captivity and then released in nature in areas populated by rabbits in southern Spain and Portugal.
First considered a harmful animal, environmental defenders convinced the rural communities and hunters that the lynx was in fact an asset for the campaign.
The number of lynx reached 2,021 according to a census carried out in 2023. While it was classified as threatened with extinction, it is now vulnerable, according to an UICN update from 2024.
An uncertain future for the lynx
The “Life Lynx Connect” project arriving at its end in 2026, this very photogenic feline is faced with an uncertain future.
The reintroduction of the carnivorous wild cat has come up against the resistance of Catalonia, Aragon and certain regions of Castile and Léon, in northern Spain.
The farmers of Zamora, a region famous for its wolf population, do not see a good eye the arrival of another predator, even if the lynx never kills cattle.
In Aragon, in eastern Spain, the conservatives govern with the far -right party Vox, which opposes the return of the lynx.
In Catalonia, farmers organized a demonstration with their tractors in February and forced the Catalan regional government to abandon its Lynx return project.
Despite the invasion of rabbits which devour cultures in agricultural regions like Lleida, farmers think that the Lynx would aggravate the situation, even if the rabbit is the favorite meal of the feline.
Mar Ariza, a 27 -year -old farmer from Revolta Pagesa, refers to a study Published in 2024 in the “Journal for Nature Conservation”, according to which lynx increases the populations of rabbits in certain regions.
The report indicates that lynx act as “Natural Wasmways”attacking lower or younger rabbits, without reducing the global population of rabbits. The same study has shown that lynxs reduce populations of red foxes, marters and other predators.
Despite the opposition to the research of the feline, Maria Jesús Palacios, who directs the conservation programs of the Lynx in Estremadure, believes that the future of the feline is assured.
“We managed to make the hunters understand that the lynx helps them because it is a super predator and that it helps to regulate the campaign by eliminating all the other rivals”She told Euronews Green.
“When we launched this project, they did not believe us. But they could see with their own eyes that it was a reality.”
Maria Jesús Palacios believes that the opposition of farmers in certain regions of Spain will fade and that the regional authorities will support conservation projects in the future.
Felipe García works for the regional authorities of Estremadure to protect the lynx, but on weekends, he indulges in his hobby, hunting. He shows his photos of deer and rabbit hunts.
“I think it is good that hunters realize that the lynx can be beneficial for the countryside and that it is not a harmful animal. It kills the foxes and other rivals that attack rabbits”he explains.
Formerly driven for money, lynx live today in comfort
At the beginning of the 20th century, Spanish hunters could earn nearly 4 pesetas (about enough to buy 16 kg of bread) for each lynx killed, because the animal was officially considered a harmful animal.
Today, the animal lives in some of the most exclusive fields of rural Spain, which are exploited for hunting. The feline is well received by his wealthy hosts, because he kills rival predators like the foxes.
An 8,000 hectare area located in Valencia de Las Torres, in southern Estremadors, is home to around 60 lynx, one of the largest communities in Spain.
The estate belongs to the sheikh mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Emirati owner of the Manchester City football club, and it is a paradise for lynx, because it is full of rabbits.
In the Domaine de la Locomienda, about an hour’s drive from Los Milientos, we waited at the top of a hill looking for lynx.
Suddenly, the rural agent’s radio bip, bip, bip. A lynx, wearing an electronic necklace like many animals followed, was close.
Quietar, a three -year -old female, suddenly arose in front of us, resembling a big pet cat, then ran away.
What is the future of the Iberian lynx?
Steve Cracknell, expert in reintroduction and author of “The Improbable Rewilding of the Pyrenees”, says that despite resistance to the return of the lynx, the animal will cross the regional borders of its own.
“It is a great success. He was threatened with extinction and he has now reached a population of 2,000 individuals. And that has changed attitudes with regard to the lynx”he adds.
The environmental defenders believe that attitude towards the lynx, but also with regard to domestic animals, has fundamentally changed in Spain in recent decades.
Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente, the naturalist who died often called the “Spanish attention David”, is considered to be the initiator of this change of mentality in Spain.
