Making a comeback Wild Wonders of Europe/Oxford/naturepl.com

Welcome back. Around 20 Iberian lynx (shown above) have been released in Spain and Portugal since the start of the year in the latest phase of a reintroduction programme, helping one of the world’s most endangered cats reclaim lost habitats.

A campaign to reintroduce its cousin, the more common Eurasian lynx, in the UK is also gathering momentum, and could get approval from national wildlife authorities later this year.


In 2002, there were fewer than 100 Iberian lynx in the wild, confined to just two regions in southern Spain. Since then, their population has grown to over 300, thanks in part to an ambitious programme called LIFE Iberlince.

There are plans to release 48 lynx in total this year across seven regions, most from captive breeding centres. These will join the 124 already released since 2014 in Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Andalusia in Spain, and the Guadiana Valley in Portugal.

Signs of optimism

Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature downgraded its status from critically endangered to endangered.

“I’m more optimistic than I was a few years ago,” says Miguel Simón, director of the project.

Once released, the Iberian lynx roam far and wide, and scientists track their movements with radio collars. But they still face threats, including a haemorrhagic virus affecting rabbits, its main prey.

The Iberian lynx has an important role in Mediterranean ecosystems as a predator, helping to control the numbers of foxes, mongoose and genets. It’s also a unique element of Portugal and Spain’s natural heritage, says Simón. “For that reason alone we are obliged to preserve it for future generations.”

Soon to be seen in the UK? Christian Heinrich/imageBROKER/REX Shutterstock

Its more common relative, the larger Eurasian lynx (pictured above), isn’t considered endangered, but it occupies a fraction of its former range across northern Europe, Siberia and central and east Asia. In the UK, it was eliminated around AD 700 by hunting.

Campaigners now hope to bring it back to the UK, saying it will preserve forests by preying on deer, which graze on saplings.

“Lynx can be a saviour of the British countryside,” says Paul O’Donoghue, chief scientific adviser to the Lynx UK Trust. “The British countryside is effectively dying because there’s massive overgrazing from overinflated deer numbers. Lynx will change the whole dynamics of these deer herds, which will reduce forest damage and promote regeneration.”

Eurasian lynx has already been reintroduced in Germany where it has benefited ecosystems, as well as rural economies by creating opportunities for ecotourism, O’Donoghue says. “It’s worked very well in Germany and there’s no reason to think it won’t work equally well in the UK,” he says.

Rewilding critics

The Lynx UK Trust is about to finish a national stakeholder consultation, and in mid-2016 they plan to apply to Scottish Natural Heritage and Natural England for licences.

“We’re very confident of a positive decision,” says O’Donoghue.

Rewilding – the idea of restoring ecosystems through the release of top predators – has won considerable support in recent years, but it isn’t without its critics.

We cannot predict how ecological communities will respond and the potential implications must be carefully considered, says David Nogués-Bravo at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. A paper he published this week urges caution with rewilding projects.

“No doubt the lynx in Scotland may help to control deer populations, but there are also records of diet contents in the forests of southern Norway, for example, showing lynx preying on birds,” Nogués-Bravo says. “What might happen to endangered bird species in Scotland when facing a new predator as the lynx that they have not faced in the last 1500 years? Would they be able to adapt fast to this new potentially threatening predator?”

Read more: Rewilding: Bring in the big beasts to fix ecosystems; Where the wild things are: Big beasts return to Europe