They state that the Iberian lynx is a bit larger than a red fox. At the start of the 20th century, they estimate that there were around 100,000 individuals in Spain and Portugal. As mentioned on this page elsewhere, hunting, roadkill and urban development contributed to a rapid decline. The biggest factor in their decline in numbers was due to disease in wild rabbits, their main prey animal. Therefore, a catastrophic depletion in their prey contributed to the decline of the Iberian lynx. They starved.
As also mentioned on this page elsewhere, at one stage the Iberian lynx was the world’s most endangered cat. I don’t think that that statement can be made any more. The Siberian tiger and are Amur leopard have, to the best of my knowledge, smaller population sizes, to name 2 other wild cat species.
The head of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund, Juan Carlos del Olmo, said in a statement that the Iberian lynx will only be out of danger when its population reaches 3,000-3,500 including 750 breeding females. They hope to achieve this by 2040.
There is still illegal hunting of this rare cat which is sad to hear. The IUCN Red List has reclassified the survivability in the wild of this cat species from “critically endangered” to “endangered”.
Most Iberian lynx, as at 2022, are found in the Donana National Park and Sierra Morena Mountains in the southwestern region of Andalusia. The captive breeding programme has introduced individuals to the Spanish regions of Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia, as well as Portugal.
The following section on conservation was written in around 2009:
There is a “management plan”. The plan was created by two organisation (ICONA and CSIC). The plan includes efforts to improve rabbit populations, reduce traffic deaths, reduce trapping deaths and to create corridors between isolated populations to promote more viable population sizes. The latter objective would seem now to be beyond attainment as there are only two populations left as indicated in the map, which are many miles apart. Conservation becomes more difficult as the situation becomes graver.
2005: At the El Acebuche Breeding Center, in the Doñana Nature Park a lynx gave birth to 3 cubs. In 2008 she gave birth to 3 more.
In the other area in the eastern Sierra Morena there are an estimated 150 cats at 2008. This is considered the limit for the area so some cats might be relocated. Off-site breeding appears to be going well. Are things changing at the 11th hour?
Ecology
The Iberian lynx is sadly a specialist when it comes to prey. It favours rabbits and the rabbit population has declined due to myxomatosis, Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease, over hunting and habitat loss. The lynx will also eat rodents and birds. In the Parque Nacional de Doñana rabbit remains were found in 73-88% of lynx scats (feces) (Sunquists). Rats, lizards, geese, snakes and fallow deer as also mentioned are prey to the lynx but they come a distant second to rabbits. The lynx will concentrate on young red or fallow deer. The red deer is bigger than the fallow deer. The deer is killed by a throat bite causing the deer to die of suffocation. A large kill is hidden to preserve it for the next meal.
The lynx likes dense cover. In 2002 it was described as living in mountainous areas between 400 and 1,300 metres above sea level. That would not apply to the population in the Parque Nacional de Doñana, which now, at 2009, represents a major population for this cat species. The Doñana park consists of what is called “marquis” (scrubland) and marshes. It is an area where there are marsh-living birds. No doubt these form part of the adaptable lynx’s diet. In fact the Mallard duck is prey in the spring when the ducks move from the marshes to breed.
The marquis is used for rest sites in high temperatures in the daytime and as dens when nursing young cubs. They commonly hunt on the border (called vera) between the scrubland and the marshes (Sunquists). This area is where deer fallow deer are more likely to be found.
The Iberian lynx hunts at a variety of times depending on the individual and the season. In the summer they are mainly nocturnal and are more active at dawn and dusk while in winter activity is higher in daytime.
A male’s range will normally overlap the range of one female but will not overlap the range of another male. Range sizes: males 10.3 km² and females 8.7 km². Although this information relates to the time when there was more habitat. The overall range size of the two areas referred to and the number of cats in those areas would seem to dictate smaller home ranges. The female range is naturally reduced when nursing cubs.
The Iberian lynx travels widely when hunting (e.g. 9.3 km for a male in one day).
Ranges are marked by scent markers – urine and feces were typically found at human-made boundaries to home ranges such as roads, or natural ones such as the river to the south of the Parque Nacional de Doñana, the Guadalquivir.
need to have some on the adaptations