VIDEO. The Iberian lynx saved from extinction thanks to a tailor-made program in Spain and Portugal

Victim of poaching and the depletion of wild rabbits, the basis of its diet, the Iberian lynx numbered only 100 individuals in 2002 against more than 100,000 at the start of the 20th century.

The feline was then “critically endangered” of extinction, according to the “red list” of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

But the efforts of the authorities and NGOs have made it possible to reverse the trend thanks to the fight against poaching, the reintroduction of rabbits in the area and especially captive breeding.

It is in the shelter of man, that the lynx thrives in this center which is one of the five sites (four in Spain and one in Portugal) created in the 2000s to breed it in captivity and reintroduce it. in its natural environment.

And it is a successful mission: in 2020, for the first time, 1,100 individuals were identified.

Although it is still threatened, the animal with long pointed ears ending in a thin tuft and thick white whiskers has multiplied in Andalusia and made its return to other Spanish regions from which it had disappeared (Extremadura, Castille-La Mancha) as well as in Portugal.