The lynx in the valley and in nature

- Increasingly bred lynx released into the wild. In Spain, there are already about 327 around in nature.

In the mountainous area of ​​the eastern Sierra Morena, about 240 kilometers south of Madrid, Monday is still a young female Iberian lynx released into the wild. In total reintroduces the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with partner organizations this year 37 lynxes in the wild.

Although the Iberian lynx still the most endangered cat species in the wild, the species crawls slowly out of the deep valley. Was population dwindled in 2000 to less than a hundred, last year counted 327 again. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was therefore reduced in August 2015 the status of the Iberian lynx of 'critically endangered' to 'threatened.'

In late February brought out the national census of 2015. WWF is hopeful that will count towards the 400 copies. The organization has been working for 15 years intensively on the protection and return of the Iberian lynx in its historic habitat, calling expansion of the habitat and breeding (Iberian Lynx Exsitu Conservation Programme) 'of great importance for the recovery of the small feline wild '.

There are four breeding centers in Spain and Portugal. The released female is a year old and comes from the breeding center in Portugal. She wears a transmitter so researchers can continue to follow her.

Crucial to the success of the conservation program is to bring back on track the rabbit populations, says Luis Suarez, coordinator of the kind of protection of WWF in Spain: 'The diet of the Iberian lynx is 90 percent rabbit. His daily food needs is precisely the weight of one such creature. For a female with cubs is two to three times as much. 'The rabbit populations are however taken in recent decades virus epidemics, like myxomatosis, making the rodents almost disappeared in some places. To the rabbits lend a hand, the nature organization in recent years turned around 10. 000 rabbits made in gated stay in nature and measures to recover the populations.

The reproductive success of lynx in the wild is directly related to the density of rabbits. This works appeared last summer when two females turned off for having been first ones in the region of Extremadura. It was the first time in years that the Iberian lynx has propagated outside Andalusia.

During Big Cat Month, this month the TV channel Nat Geo Wild, asking WWF and Fox together attention to the endangered felines in the wild. With special attention to the Iberian lynx. On 16 February, the documentary
Mystery of the lynx aired twice, to 15. 35 and 22. 50.