30/04/2005– WWF is celebrating
with Saliega and Garfio, the parents of three
Iberian lynx cubs born in a government-sponsored
captive breeding programme in Spain.
According to wildlife officials at the El
Acebuche captive breeding centre in the Doñana
National Park, the home of one of the two
last remaining populations of wild Iberian
lynx, this is the first successful birth of
the endangered cat species in captivity.
“We are extremely happy,” said Jesús
Cobo, coordinator of WWF-Spain’s lynx conservation
programme. “This is without a doubt an historical
milestone in the conservation of one of the
world’s most threatened cats.”
According to the most recent comprehensive
survey conducted in 2004 by the Spanish government,
only two isolated breeding populations of
Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) remain in southern
Spain, totaling about 100 animals, with only
25 breeding females. As recently as two years
ago, there were believed to have been at least
160 lynx.
Because of declining lynx numbers, an agreement
was signed in 2003 by the Spanish Environment
Ministry and the local Andalusian Environment
Council to collaborate on lynx conservation
in breeding.
“Captive breeding is one tool to ensure the
future of the lynx, but the species in not
out of danger yet,” Cobo added. “There are
other measures that need to be done to save
the lynx in the wild.”
WWF is renewing its call to limit road traffic
in the Doñana National Park region,
where several lynx have been killed over the
past few years. Road accidents have become
the primary cause of lynx mortality rates.
Another has been habitat destruction and a
drop in rabbit populations, the lynx’s main
prey. It is thought that between 1960 and
11000 the Iberian lynx suffered an 80 per
cent loss in its range. This has fragmented
the lynx into tiny communities, which raises
fears for its genetic viability and resistance
to disease.
WWF also believes that along with conserving
habitat and protecting the rabbit population,
an efficient captive breeding programme is
needed to prevent the Iberian lynx from becoming
extinct.
“In addition to providing a vital gene bank
for the survival of the species, captive lynxes
will be needed to re-colonize the many areas
where populations have collapsed,” Cobo said.
NOTES:
• There are only two confirmed small and
isolated breeding populations of the Iberian
lynx, both in southern Spain — Doñana
National Park and Sierra de Andujar Natural
Park. The two captive parents, Saliega and
Garfio, were both captured from the Sierra
de Andujar Natural Park several years ago.
• The Iberian lynx is a relative species
of the Eurasian lynx, the Canada lynx and
the North American bobcat. It is approximately
the same size as the Canada lynx but about
half the size of the Eurasian lynx, which
survives in central and eastern Europe.
• A mother lynx in the wild may carry its
cubs between up to twelve homes, to avoid
predation. Sexual maturity of a female lynx
starts at three years of age. Scientists were
surprised by the birth of the lynx cubs in
captivity as their mother is only two-years
old.
