Conservation efforts to save Portugal and Spain’s iconic lynx have been outlined in the Guardian today which has highlighted the number of the rare animals that are being run over and killed on Spain’s roads.
The lynx breeding centre in Silves successfully is producing lynx for later release into the mountainous regions of central Spain and the lower Alentejo in Portugal but the main killer is not hunters or poison, it is road users.
The number of lynx killed in by vehicles in Spain has risen since 2008 when two were reported dead on the nation’s roads. By 2014 the total had reached 22 which shows that numbers are rising significantly, only to be killed in accidents.
Ramon Perez de Ayala from the World Wide Fund for Nature in Spain says that cars are the biggest problem for the lynx and that it is a problem that easily could be fixed.
Perez de Ayala estimates a cost of €6m to make roads safer for wandering lynx. This would involve clearing roadsides of brush, putting up barriers and creating passages that allow the lynx to pass under roads.
“With the excuse of the economic crisis, we have not even carried out the most basic road maintenance works,” said Perez de Ayala in contradiction to Spain’s public works ministry which says it is cooperating in the fight against road accidents involving lynxes and has carried out the necessary road works.
Lynx numbers dropped from 100,000 in the early 1900s to less than 100 in 2002, leading the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to list the animal as critically endangered.
“The Iberian lynx is the only feline classified in the highest category of risk of extinction,” said Catherine Numa of the Spanish branch.
The WWF has warned that the Iberian lynx, found only in Spain and Portugal, could become the first big cat to go extinct since the sabre-tooth tiger died out 10,000 years ago.
Portugal's breeding programme, funded by Aguas de Algarve in compensation for building the Odelouca reservoir near Silves, is largely successful with many lynx already released to fend for themselves despite a current paucity of rabbit due to disease.
In Portugal today, the Secretary of State for Regional Planning and Nature Conservation, Miguel de Castro Neto said he is happy with the national plan for the reintroduction of the Iberian lynx stressing that it could "reconcile a set of interests which initially seemed opposed” and that all those involved now have a proactive and collaborative attitude.
Initial problems were those of habitat, rabbit, and security issues on the nation’s road network.
Regarding the March poisoning of a released lynx, Neto said "unfortunately in Portugal, poisons that are prohibited, despite enforcement efforts, continue to be used."
The use of poison "is not an acceptable practice," said Neto, adding that the problem "deserves the full attention of the Conservation Institute for Nature and Forestry in partnership with police,” and that there is a European project with Spain to train special dogs to detect these substances.
Portugal has released ten lynx so far all of which are being monitored in a programme that is ongoing until the population is self-supporting.
Neto said that public awareness was "very important" to the success of the reintroduction plan, pointing to the major issue of road kill, where the state has made a significant investment to mark and signal the main routes that lynx are known to use.
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