More about the above map
The Red List map is hard to copy as it provides no markers and is too small in scale (it is small in scale because it has to include all of the peninsula as there are areas where this wild cat is believed to be extinct). I am very surprised the scale of the known habitat is as small as it is, though, bearing in mind the size of the range. The Red List do say in their text that the Iberian lynx is found in the Coto Doñana and near Andújar-Cardeña in the eastern Sierra Morena.
The Coto Doñana is national park (Parque Nacional de Doñana) indicated in the above map by the blue area and near Cadiz on the south western coast of Spain. It is a park area of wetlands and sand dunes on the Guadalquivir delta.
I have followed the Coto Doñana park boundaries (as shown by Google maps) but the Red List drawn map of this cat’s range in this area goes wider and it extends across a main road that is the western boundary (A483 going north) of the park and it to the estuary surrounding the town of Huelva. That wider area is very roughly enclosed by the red line on the map above. The red lined area is actually larger. It may be that the Iberian lynx inhabits areas beyond the park but these areas contain a landscape that is quite obviously less hospitable to a wild cat, judging by the map. But that said the lynx seems to be no less safe in the park than outside it (see below – threats).
In short, the verbal description by the Red List does not seem to concur with the drawn map. I would have preferred a more detailed Red List map as it is the only map of use of the range of the Iberian lynx. It may be the case that the range is not known accurately but as it is so small and limited I would have though that this was not the case.
Also, the other range to the north east and near Andújar is hard to replicate and is drawn from common sense based on the Red List drawn map and verbal description.
This photo and the ones above as labelled are by The Iberian Lynx Ex-Situ Conservation Program www.lynxexsitu.es (new window). They are the copyright of the conservation program and published here with their permission. The words on this page, though, are entirely my work.
Anyway, as can be seen the range is very limited and completely fragmented into two portions some 200 miles apart. Habitat fragmentation and reduction has been due to agricultural and industrial development. The planting of Mediterranean scrublands with pines and eucalyptus is an example (Red List).
need to have some on the adaptations