“Europe’s carnivores have had a remarkable change in fortune. After tens of thousands of years of persecution that wiped out saber-toothed tigers, hyenas and cave lions, there has been a recent rebound in the continent’s surviving predators,” reports The Guardian:
Across mainland Europe, bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine numbers have risen dramatically as conservation measures introduced several decades ago have begun to make an impact. There are now about 20,500 brown bears in Europe, a rise of 17% since 2016, while there are 9,400 Eurasian lynx, a 12% increase.
The continent now has 1,300 wolverines, an increase of 16%, while, remarkably, Europe’s population of wild wolves has jumped by 35% to 23,000. Only the golden jackal has done better. Its population – which is concentrated in southern Europe – now stands at 150,000, a rise of 46% since 2016.
Animals that were once hunted as vermin while their habitats were turned to farmland are returning. The howl of the wolf, the grunt of the bear and the noise of their padding through forests and plains is being heard again across Europe. The century’s most striking continental carnivore comeback is that of the Iberian lynx, or Lynx pardinus. There were fewer than a hundred of these distinctive feline predators 25 years ago, in their last stronghold in southern Spain.
By 2024, Iberian lynxes had grown in number, to the point where there were 648 mature Iberian lynxes, and over 2,000 of them overall, including both mature and juvenile lynxes. The Iberian lynx is a cat that lives in the Iberian peninsula, which contains Spain and Portugal. 13 clusters of Iberian lynxes live in Spain, and one cluster lives in Portugal.
In 2023, 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.
Last year, Florida’s manatees 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.
