THE ENDANGERED LYNX

There has been rather a rich diet on this blog this week with two days of prostitution and yesterday’s denied allegations that the former president of the Spanish Government, José María Aznar, was the father of French Justice Minister Rachida Dati’s unborn child.

Today I’m going to deal with a life and death issue, that of the endangered Iberian Lynx. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Adena have reported that they are very concerned about the population of Lynxes in the Doñana national park and state that it has dropped by 20 per cent in recent years. This they say “is very discouraging”.

In a press release WWF/Adena has called for the implementation of an immediate emergency plan to overcome the basic problems faced by these cats and to do what is necessary to save this species rather than the present random and uncoordinated actions.

The WWF/Adena has criticised the current programme that concentrates on the relocation of Lynxes or breeding programmes and says these are of a secondary nature. In calling for a return to basics the environmentalists say the priorities should be the conservation of their habitat that is under threat from intensive farming and irrational construction of infrastructure. In addition the state of the population, the increasing deaths from illegal hunting, their illnesses and lack of food all need to be promptly addressed.

Previously lynxes born in the Sierra Morena have been moved to the Doñana and WWF/Adena says it opposes this programme because it ignores the international instructions on the reintroduction of endangered species.

The environmentalists argue that before a species is re-introduced in to an area there is a need “to identify and eliminate or reduce to a sufficient level the previous causes of the lynx’s decline and this has not occurred in the Doñana where the problems, not the solutions, are increasing.” In short WWF/Adena does not believe that the current strategy guarantees the survival of the species in the Doñana area.

In April of this year three of the four cubs of a Lynx named ‘Wary’ were found dead in the Doñana. They all died within a week and it appeared that the cause of death was likely to be hunger. The WWF/Adena stated at the time its concern about the breeding programme in Doñana and called for steps to be taken to ensure such a tragedy did no occur again. ‘Wary’ is one of three breeding Lynxes in Doñana that had been transferred from the Sierra Morena.

The fact is that if the Iberian Lynx is allowed to become extinct then all our lives are diminished. To find out more about the WWF/Adena and the endangered Lynxes visit their website: http://www.wwf.es/