“One of the world’s rarest cats, the Iberian lynx, is no longer classed as endangered,” reports the BBC.
The Iberian lynx has been upgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” after a significant rise in numbers. In 2001, there were 62 mature Iberian lynxes and more than 100 juvenile lynxes. Now, there are 648 mature Iberian lynxes, and over 2,000 of them overall, including both mature and juvenile lynxes.
The cat lives in the Iberian peninsula, which contains Spain and Portugal. 13 clusters of Iberian lynxes live in Spain, and one cluster lives in Portugal:
The wild cat used to be common across the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, but from the 1960s its numbers plummeted. Habitat loss, poaching and road accidents all helped to push the species to the brink of extinction.
Now, the cat is coming back. The increase is largely thanks to conservation efforts that have focused on increasing the abundance of its main food source – the also endangered wild rabbit, known as European rabbit.
Programs to free hundreds of captive lynxes and restoring scrublands and forests have also played an important role in ensuring the lynx is no longer endangered. Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, a coordinator responsible for leading the conservation action, described it as the “greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation.”
The conservation program plans to reintroduce the animal to additional places in central and northern Spain.
The range roamed by Iberian lynxes has grown, from 173 square miles in 2005 to 1,282 square miles today. But the Iberian lynxes continue to face threats, such as diseases transmitted by domestic cats and the wild rabbits they eat, and being struck by automobiles when crossing roads.
In other news, wild horses have returned to Kazakhstan after an absence of 200 years. These are genuine wild horses, unlike mustangs, which are domesticated horses that went wild. By contrast, domesticated horses are descended from the wild horses in Kazakhstan, since the grassy plains of northern Kazakhstan were the first place on earth where horses were domesticated.
Last year, a baby beaver was born in London, the first beaver birth there in 400 years. And carnivorous plants were reintroduced to English wetlands.
A dog recently discovered a species of mole long thought to be extinct, De Winton’s golden mole. Crocodiles are flourishing in Australia, where they once verged on extinction.
Florida’s manatees have rebounded to their highest number in years. Sea turtles are proliferating, with sea turtle nests tripling in Florida.
An Asian antelope declared extinct in Bangladesh is making a comeback.
The forests that provide the habitat for many endangered species are also making a comeback in much of the world. The amount of vegetation on the Earth has increased every year for the past 30 years. Most of the world’s forests are growing.
