Iberian Lynx

[nuno_vilaca]

Hello all!!!
I was wondering if any of you has ever seen an Iberian Lynx...
I have never seen one, but I'd like to visit the place in Spain where they try to breed them...
Some years ago while I was still a boy scout I went camping to Serra da Malcata (Portugal), best known for being the Iberian Lynx Portuguese Reservation site... I remember speaking whith someone that had been working there for more than 10 years and he had never seen an Iberian Lynx... Many years have passed since someone last saw an Iberian Lynx back in Portugal and no traces have been found meanwhile... I suppose they don't exist anymore in Portugal but only in Spain... Can anyone confirm this???

Cheers!!!

[nick]

That's right, the lynx has been extinct in Portugal since, I think, the late 90s. The forum lince iberico http://www.ellinceiberico.com/foro/viewforum.php?f=3 is an excellent source of news, and I'm sure someone will tell you when the last sighting was.

Cheers
Nick

See also http://www.iberianature.com/material/iberianlynxnews.htm

[Mieke]

Last year I met with a Portuguese biologist investigating Lynx in southern Portugal. Well, he used to do this. He now shifted to wildcat (Felis silvestris) research, since he last sighted traces of lynx somewhere in the nineties.
A shortage of it's favourite food (rabbits) and fragmentation of it's original habitat by roads and other human activity are the most important causes of the decline. Especially big dams build by Portuguese Government destroyed a lot of Lynx-habitat.

[Dave]

Slightly off the main subject here, but if you are interested in learning about the Enviromental Disaster area, known as Portugal, follow this link

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33495
Regards
Dave

[nuno_vilaca]

Thank you... Unfortunately (because of the way Nature is treated, of course) I have lived there for 22 years before moving to The Netherlands to study... Such a waste of biodiversity in Portugal...

[nick]

But welcome back anyway to the forum Nuno

Cheers
Nick

[Technopat]

Today's news on lynx:
SEVILLA, 6 (EUROPA PRESS) - El responsable estatal del Área de Conservación de la Naturaleza de Ecologistas en Acción, Joaquí­n Reina, aseguró hoy que las enfermedades que padecen algunos ejemplares de lince ibérico de Doñana las causan la endogamia, los niveles de aislamiento y la pérdida de variabilidad genética de la especie y no un retrovirus tí­pico de gatos asilvestrados, como afirmó la Consejerí­a de Medio Ambiente de la Junta de Andalucí­a.

More at:
http://es.noticias.yahoo.com/ep/20070506/tes-ecologistas-creen-que-las-enfermedad-c5455be.html

Regs.
Technopat

[lisa]

Yesterday I watched most of a lovely documentary on Iberian lynx (includes some rare footage of a Wild cat hunting, SueMac!) on forestman before I was interrupted. Hoping to watch the rest of it today but meanwhile, a few things struck me.
1) The striking similarity of the Sierra Morena to some parts of Africa.
2) The weight of a Black vulture's nest - 1,500kg (did I get that right  )
3) The difference in the lynx's coats in the Sierra Morena and Donana.

[spanishfreelander]

Hi all,
Thought you might be interested in this from the BBC website today
Dave

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6987435.stm

[nick]

Thanks for that. I especially liked the lynx mating cry - The MMA has removed theirs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6980000/newsid_6987900/6987949.stm?

[lisa]

Particularly interesting, I thought, was the anomoly pointed out of the EU first financing conservation projects and then also financing construction projects (new roads, ski resorts etc,) which negate the former. Not to mention the improper use of water for golf courses, tourist complexes and strawberry-growing = desertification.

[steveT]

Dear all,

I've just looked on the IB website and watched the lynxes Domo and Drago playing. Buffering was not working well so I watched in by clicking frame by frame and they appear to be head butting each other ( was there any dialogue?)...... I guess they were testing each others strength...........have I got this right..........is it typical behaviour .............. do adult lynxes uses this behavoiur in any way ........... or is this like all cats who uses head to head contact when greeting , but in this case it's being used for play/deciding pecking order.........mind you I've never seen kitens do it. Anyone got an opoinion on this?

steveT

[lisa]

Hi steveT, feeling sure they would be scent-marking each other with the glands on their foreheads, I had a look at the video. Those are definite, short, sharp head butts  I can't imagine it being an adult fighting technique (lynx don't have horns!) so can only think that it's dominance play - let's see if Nick knows.

[steveT]

Lisa,

Yes, it must be dominance play .......... I'm not so sure that lynx have scent glands on their heads ........... but it is curious that they are definately head butting each other .......... something I've never seen in other kittens or cubs of other cat species.

steveT

[potes]

Hello nuno_vilaca

5 years ago my partner and I both sighted a Lynx whilst descending from Fuente De to Espinama (near the Los Urrieles massive in the Picos De Europa ) I wish I could say that it was due to diligence and a methodical search however the truth is thta it was just a very, very lucky sighting. We had seen several lynx/cat hybrids over the years and have even managed to film one of them however this is our only sighting of a true lynx. We observed it in an open space between trees for approximately 60 seconds or should I say that it observed us before it shot off into the trees.It remains a wonderful memory for both of us.

I hope you are as lucky as we were in your wish to see a lynx

regards

[nick]

I'm sorry to say Potes that it can't have been a lynx as they went extinct in the area you are talking about decades ago - if indeed they ever lived that high up.

Must have been a wild cat - Actually I think that's what you mean (domestic cats hybridise with wild cats NOT lynx)

Cheers and welcome to the forum
Nick

[lisa]

Hi potes and welcome. As much as I'd love there to be lynx in the Picos, as Nick says it was probably a Wildcat, Felis silvestris or gato montés in Spanish. I wonder if you saw a tail?

[potes]

Hello All

Thanks for the welcome.

With hindsight  I should have added the rider of  " we think we saw a Lynx " However we are obviously wrong and both feel a little deflated that all we witnessed was another hybrid. The odd thing is that although we had observed many of these hybrids before and have since none of them looked remotely like the one we saw above Espinama . Although it has to be said that the wildcats we have witnessed do vary in size and markings however they all have the distinctive black line and hooped tail in common
We checked my partners diary this morning to look at the log she made of the sighting, it showed straight away that I was way off with the date let alone anything else .It actually was evening on Friday 30 April 1999. We both concurred in our description that we sighted the animal at an approximate distance of 20 meters The animals size was about 65/70cm long ( including its tail ) and 45/50cm high.Its tail was very short and black and its over all colour was dark and mottled The animal was in a crouched position with its head turned towards us enabling us to see its face full on, its ears had tufts on the top .The animal stayed motionless for about 45 seconds and then began to move off slowly at first, it did not at any stage run but it did move quickly in this crouched state, we also noted that it had large rear legs in comparison to the front these were very prominent within its crouched position.On reaching a covered area it began to raise its self fully and at this point we noticed that it appeared to have a very low slung stomach ( we both thought that it looked pregnant )

Sorry to have misled you guys but because of its size, colour and characteristics we did believe it to be a Lynx, it truly looked so different to the many hybrids that we had seen and filmed over the years but we are obviously mistaken, never mind I am now going to carry on watching the short toed eagle that has taken to perching near our home or is it a sparrow ? 

regards

[Technopat]

Greetings Potes,
Not clear as to whether you (both) still think it was a lynx you saw and are politely bowing to external pressure from iberianatureforum veterans and/or founder members, or whether they have reasonably convinced you that what you saw was not in fact what you think you saw .

My personal level of scepticism, well-known on this 'ere iberianatureforum, leads me to doubt "expert" opinions  - in general, I hasten to add - not Nick's and Lisa's specifically, just in case anyone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morn. (Sp. anyone?) - just as much, although possibly for different reasons, as I doubt the layperson's opinions. All branches of science, depending on historical moment, politics, etc. suffer from the natural failings of human beings - of which there are many - and cases abound of wrong diagnoses, sightings, interpretations, conclusions, etc. 

The fact that there might be consensus over a matter doesn't necessarily guarantee the truth of said matter and vice versa, of course. (That's too good to be my own!) That is, even though there had been no sightings or droppings of lynx in a particular area for a particular period, doesn't necessarily mean, etc., etc. By the w., does anyone have an update on this year's lynx droppings found in Madrid?

Regs.
Technopat

PS.
Nick mentions hybrid domestic and wild cats - surely there would also be cases of hybrid wild cats and lynx - far more likely in the wild, no?

[nick]

Well Potes you could go down Sierra Morena one day and try and see a real one. I haven't yet.

But what you saw could easier have been a bone-fide wild cat - not a hybrid.

Just to make it clear Domestic/wild cats don't cross breed with lynx