Of Lynx, Rabbits, and a Warming World
The Iberian lynx is the world’s most imperiled felid, with a total population of around 250 animals still in the wild. A bobcat-sized hunter of rabbits, mice and birds in the dry scrub and maquis thickets of southern Spain, the Iberian lynx (Felis pardinus), while it remains critically endangered, has recently benefitted from captive breeding efforts. Beginning in 2009, Spanish scientists have reintroduced 40 of the cats to the province of Andalusia, and one was recently sighting hunting far to the north in Don Quixote’s old stomping grounds of Castile-La Mancha. Though their natural habitat is in short supply (only about five percent remains intact) and their genetic diversity is poor, the lynx appears to be staging a possible comeback, staving off the first extinction in the feline family since the saber-toothed cat died out 10,000 years ago.
Saving the lynx has brought direct benefits to their human neighbors, as well, wildlife watching having become a tourist attraction in the area. And with unemployment in Andalusia at nearly thirty-seven percent, numerous local jobs have been created by the need for habitat restoration. But poaching, death by automobile, and disease continue to take their toll.
Weighing around 25 pounds and handsome in gray speckled fur with yellowish/rusty tinting and chocolate spots, the Iberian lynx comes equipped with the thick, drooping muttonchops and long black silky ear tufts of its kin. With its long hind legs perfected for the leaping attack and large, broad paws ideal for snagging prey, it fills an important ecological niche as hunter of small-to-medium vertebrates, its preferred food being the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), hero of the troubling novel Watership Down.
And therein lies the problem. A new danger has appeared that threatens to undo all the work of the past four years: climate change, that perennial menace, is expected to cause Spain’s rabbit population to seek higher, cooler habitat, and it’s doubtful the cats can adapt fast enough on their own to keep up with their favorite prey. Last month a paper in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change predicted that unless climate change is figured into reintroduction efforts, the millions of euros and years of hard work could vanish with the lynx inside of 50 years.
In one of the first broad analyses of climate change and prey availability as integral factors for wildlife management, the researchers argued that only by incorporating the nefarious effects of global warming into scientific planning would the lynx be able to survive into the next century. By adapting management plans to reintroduce the species exclusively to Spain’s higher terrain where rabbits are expected to migrate, such as the Pyrenean foothills, conservationists can proactively prepare a suitable home for this lovely, fierce little cat, far above the burning plain.
Saving the lynx has brought direct benefits to their human neighbors, as well, wildlife watching having become a tourist attraction in the area. And with unemployment in Andalusia at nearly thirty-seven percent, numerous local jobs have been created by the need for habitat restoration. But poaching, death by automobile, and disease continue to take their toll.
Weighing around 25 pounds and handsome in gray speckled fur with yellowish/rusty tinting and chocolate spots, the Iberian lynx comes equipped with the thick, drooping muttonchops and long black silky ear tufts of its kin. With its long hind legs perfected for the leaping attack and large, broad paws ideal for snagging prey, it fills an important ecological niche as hunter of small-to-medium vertebrates, its preferred food being the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), hero of the troubling novel Watership Down.
And therein lies the problem. A new danger has appeared that threatens to undo all the work of the past four years: climate change, that perennial menace, is expected to cause Spain’s rabbit population to seek higher, cooler habitat, and it’s doubtful the cats can adapt fast enough on their own to keep up with their favorite prey. Last month a paper in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change predicted that unless climate change is figured into reintroduction efforts, the millions of euros and years of hard work could vanish with the lynx inside of 50 years.
In one of the first broad analyses of climate change and prey availability as integral factors for wildlife management, the researchers argued that only by incorporating the nefarious effects of global warming into scientific planning would the lynx be able to survive into the next century. By adapting management plans to reintroduce the species exclusively to Spain’s higher terrain where rabbits are expected to migrate, such as the Pyrenean foothills, conservationists can proactively prepare a suitable home for this lovely, fierce little cat, far above the burning plain.