Animal of the Week April 30, 2012 -- back from the brynx?

(c) Programa de Conservación Ex-situ del Lince Ibérico www.lynxexsitu.es

Hola!

Animal of the Quarter is back again. And while England basks in glorious April rain (which doesn't seem to have been notified of the change of month) I thought I'd try to bring a little Iberian sunshine to my life and to yours, by posting an AOTW that I have been meaning to include in this blog for almost as long as I've been doing it. This week's animal is quite simply one of the most beautiful things I have never seen, and just a couple of years ago, few stood a chance of ever seeing Lynx pardinus.

The Iberian lynx is one of four species of lynx, including the Eurasian and Canadian lynxes and the bobcat. The lynxes are best known for their impressive facial hair and black ear tufts. Despite my own adventures in pogonophilia and the increasing prominence of my ear hair, I am not a lynx (rather depressingly my ear hair is mostly grey).

The Iberian lynx deserves special mention as it is the most endangered of all the big cat species (the Siberian tiger and Amur leopard, although vanishingly rare, are not distinct enough from other tigers or leopards, respectively obvs, to be considered species). Once scattered widely across the Iberian peninsular, the Iberian lynx is now found only in Donana national park near Seville and the Sierra Morena mountain range. Like money and Madeline McCann, it vanished from Portugal. If it were to become extinct it would be perhaps the first big cat to do so since the sabre toothed tiger (Smilodon).

In 2005 there was a population of just 100 or so in the wild, which has increased to perhaps 300 in the past few years. In 2012, the numbers have increased once again, with the release of captive bred individuals in April. With ongoing and quite productive captive breeding programmes in both Portugal and Spain, the outlook is less bleak, but still not assured for this stunning feline.