In the last census that was held in Spain in 2023, the Lynx was consolidated in 5 autonomous communities and represented one community of approximately 2,000 copies. A consolidation that has even exercised itself to other areas further than what the area of influence was historical.
Good news that was born thanks to the repair work of the species that began to carry out in AndalusiaWhere “when the cores were held at the time, the reintroductions started,” Javier Salcedo explained, coordinator of the Proyecto Life Lynx Connect That is the one who manages this work.
After passing the Andalusian community, this program expanded between 2011-2018, the number of copies of Lince in the direction of new populations in Castilla-La Mancha (Campo de Montiel and Montes de Toledo), Extremadura (Matachel) and even southern Portugal (Vale Do Guadiana). In 2023 he also arrived in Murcia and 2025 at Palencia and Cuenca.
A total of 5 autonomous communities have consolidated a population of Lince
The Iberian Lynx (Lynx Pardinus) consolidates its presence on the Iberian peninsula more and more And already occupies territories in five Spanish autonomous communities, even in some areas outside the historic distribution area, next to the core in Portugal, such as experts of the species explained to EFE.
Waiting for the publication of a new census of the population next week, made the latter in 2023 marked around 2,000 copies, already far away from the hundred who was in 2002 in just two populations of Andalusia -The Doñana National Park and the Sierra de Andújar -.
The recovery tasks of the species started exactly in Andalusia, where “as soon as the cores were held at that time, the reintroductions started,” Javier Salcedo explained, Lynx Connect project coordinator.
During the Iberlince program (2011-2018), the species expanded its territory with new population in Castilla-La Mancha (Montiel Campo and Montes de Toledo), Extremadura (Matachel) and the south of Portugal (Vale do Guadiana). In 2023 the cat arrived in Murcia, with a group based in Lorca, next to extending by other already conquered areas, and in 2025 he made the leap to the Northern Peninsula and settled in the Palencia Cerrato, next to Cuenca, both outside the area of Historical distribution of the Lynx.
“Real introduction has played a basic role,” says Salcedo, who has influenced that they have contributed to achieving the current situation, with an average population growth of 20 % per year.
He also emphasized the purpose of connecting the different cores, who want to unite through small intervening populations: “It is better to have all the connected populations than to have more lynx, but they have been disconnected,” he said.
Not everyone looks like reintroductions from Lince
The reintroductions of this cat, which require a “high social acceptance factor” in addition to variables such as adequate and sufficient rabbit population, as these experts explain They sometimes bump into the resistance of sectors such as hunting or agriculture.
In Catalonia, the pressure exerted by the agricultural sector led the regional government to reverse its intention to re -introduce this species. Other regions, such as Aragon or Zamora, have also seen their reintroduction plans inhibit.
In this sense they have discovered different types of resistors that vary from a “a certain fear of novelty and new forbidden”, the restraint of a greater presence of people on the farms, many of them private, to political conflicts that “have nothing to do with the lynx.”
To combat this opposition, exchange days are made with groups that already live with the Lynx to reduce fears and to show that «It does not imply a problem for management or to continue with the usual practices ».
The future of the Lynx in Spain
Based on a Lynx -Connect -analysis in which demographic and genetic criteria are combined, it is estimated that the “Favorable preservation” would be necessary to have around 1,100 reproductive women, equal to between 4,400 and 5,500 people, as well as eight new population areas.
Among the potential regions for that expansion, Castilla y León, Aragon – where two zones have already been selected – the community of Madrid – with works to identify an ideal area or Catalonia.
The expansion to the north, which “becomes drier”, houses better rabbit populations and through which drastic events in climate change can spread North-South. However, its expansion in the Cantabrian cornice is excluded due to the low presence of rabbit. The efforts focus on the Mediterranean Sea Iberia. EFE / ECOTICIA.COM