(29 May 2018) LEADIN:
The Iberian lynx, one of the world's most endangered feline species, is making a return the to wild.
The species was once on the brink of extinction, but a breeding programme has helped the population to recover.
Now cats bred in captivity are being released into their natural habitat.
STORYLINE :
The cage door opens and an Iberian Lynx emerges, pauses then sprints into the meadow, to the joy of the gathered crowd.
This feline, bred and reared in captivity, is now destined to roam Andulcia and hopefully help restore the fortunes of Spain's distinctive wild feline.
It's a milestone in one of the most successful and ambitious EU-funded conservation programmes for wild endangered species.
Once listed as 'critically endangered' on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, in 2012 the Lynx pardinus recovered to 156 mature individuals in two remaining wild subpopulations leading to it be reclassified as 'endangered'.
"Moments like this one today are very moving," says Miguel Ángel Simón, the director of Iberlince conservation programme.
"I've already set more than 200 lynxes free, but each time you open the cage of a lynx born in captivity, you say: 'From now on, it depends on you, you're going to make a living on your own, you need to adapt, fit in with other fellow animals in the area … they need to find a place for themselves and defend their place."
The Iberian lynx is a medium-sized feline (8-14 kg) which feeds almost exclusively on rabbits and lives in areas of the Iberian Peninsula with dense woodland, Mediterranean scrub and pasture.
"The European lynx is much bigger, almost double the size," says Simón.
"The thing that impresses the most about the Iberian Lynx is its elegance … they consider themselves the kings of nature. When they see someone in the countryside, they look at you and say 'well, I'm going to allow you to stay around because this (land) is mine.' It's something like this."
Up to the 19th century, the species could be found in most regions of Spain and Portugal.
Since then, however, its population and geographical distribution suffered a sharp decline, which reached alarming levels in the last decades of the 20th century, mainly due to rabbit epidemics and loss of habitat.
In 2000, there were fewer than a hundred Iberian Lynxes left in the Iberian Peninsula, surviving in two tiny areas of Andalusia region of Spain.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified it as a 'critically endangered' species in 2002. It was officially the most endangered cat species in the world.
Today around 600 lynxes are living in the wild in areas of Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla La Mancha regions in Spain, as well as an area in Portugal, and around 100 more survive in captivity in four different breeding facilities, according to Simón.
Iberlince's budget from 2011 to 2018 is €34 million, 60 percent of which has been funded by the European Union.
"It's the biggest such project ever undertaken in the history of the EU," says Luis Suárez, director of the species programme at World Wildlife Fund Spain, which is a partner of the project.
"We're talking about a species in Western Europe. It would have been one of the first extinction of a species of such characteristics in centuries. That has rung all the bells among European and national institutions."
Iberlince runs a successful breeding programme with four centres in different places of Spain and Portugal with around 100 felines.
Their keepers maintain a distance and offer them live rabbits in their enclosures so they can learn to hunt for themselves.
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