The challenge
The Iberian lynx had fallen to just 62 mature animals in 2001. It depends on the European rabbit, itself now endangered, and was losing habitat and being killed by people, including on roads.
The case
Public bodies, scientific institutions, NGOs, private companies and local landowners, farmers, gamekeepers and hunters, with EU LIFE funding, worked to increase rabbit numbers, restore Mediterranean scrub and forest, and reduce deaths caused by people, such as road kills and poaching. A captive breeding programme and moving lynx between populations widened their genetic diversity, and since 2010 more than 400 lynx have been reintroduced to parts of Portugal and Spain. The number of mature lynx rose from 62 in 2001 to 648 in 2022, and the total population is estimated at more than 2,000. The area they occupy grew from 449 km² in 2005 to at least 3,320 km². In 2024 the IUCN moved the species from Endangered to Vulnerable.
Why it worked
The coordinator of the EU's LIFE Lynx-Connect project called it the greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation. It relied on working with local landowners and hunters, but the lynx remains vulnerable to new rabbit disease outbreaks, road kills and climate change.
Sources
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