At the start of the 21st century, Spain’s once-abundant lynx population was on the verge of extinction, decimated by a combination of h

The Iberian lynx is back from the brink. Now virtual fences could save it from becoming roadkill

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2024-09-05 13:30:14

At the start of the 21st century, Spain’s once-abundant lynx population was on the verge of extinction, decimated by a combination of habitat loss, a decline in its main prey, hunting, and road accidents.

After decades of conservation work, the Iberian lynx has made a remarkable recovery, and a new initiative is using a high-tech system to protect the wild cat from one of its deadliest enemies: road traffic.

“In 2001, there were less than 50 mature individuals in the wild, distributed over two populations,” explains Dr Urs Breitenmoser, a carnivore ecologist and former senior scientist at the University of Bern, who co-chairs the Cat Specialist Group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

By 2022, that number soared to 648, according to IUCN and it estimates the population of young and mature lynx to now be more than 2,000.