Christian Lopez-Ashby is a Biology and Writing double major from San Juan, Puerto Rico. This piece was written for WR 301: Writing about Science (SP2015) taught by Dr. Terre Ryan, Assistant Professor of Writing at Loyola University Maryland.
Amongst the shrubs and in the midst of the wild greenery, two neon eyes lock on its prey and wait patiently to strike. Heavily spotted and concealed by the ashen surroundings, a medium-sized feline of thick umber colored fur prepares itself to strike its meal, an innate behavior that has recently become a rare luxury. Driven by hunger and need, the accented wisps of tawny, black fur move stealthily across the shrubbery and dry dirt underfoot. The Iberian lynx, exerting power and dominance under the harsh Spanish sun, prepares itself for a meal that will ultimately decide her fate and her offspring’s. In a split second, the bearded ochre force attacks a wild rabbit, claiming it as its own. Triumphant, the young Iberian lynx mother returns to her den to feed the two kittens hidden underneath the rough terrain. All the while, the harsh Spanish sunrays shine down on her and the magnificent landscape that surrounds them. Upon close inspection of the surroundings, however, the scene becomes grim and fading. All around, the greenery that once richly accentuated the pastel colors of the Iberian scrubland fades. And with the wild rabbit’s heart now beating for the last time, the unforgiving terrain mocks the lynx family with the death of the last food source they will encounter for some time. The rich wilderness and savage environment that once was there now fades and with it so do the bright yellow eyes that were once so determined.
The Iberian Peninsula is the small strip of land on the tip of Europe, encompassing countries like Spain and Portugal. In this limited yet ecologically diverse expanse of land, vast populations of the world’s most exotic and unique animals share the rough terrain as their home. One of these magnificently rare creatures is the Iberian lynx, a unique breed of wild cat characterized by its ‘beard,’ small size, and neon eyes. Once thriving, this species of lynx now suffers the fate that so many genera have faced before: populations are dwindling and extinction seems imminent. This distressing reality is the result of invasive development in the areas that have historically served as the species’ main habitat. Specifically, Spain’s road developments have split lynx communities and cut off their interactions with wild rabbit populations, which are the cat’s primary prey. These road expansions have also led to an increase in road accidents that have caused the death of many wandering wild cats. But mainly, the species’ decline has come as a result of infrastructural development inside of the lynx’s environment. This invasive behavior has isolated these communities from food sources and has led them to stray into human territory, putting them at risk of being hunted for trespassing or for their fur.[i]
These troubling facts eventually sparked a worldwide interest that has snowballed throughout these past years. Organizations such as the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) assessed the situation and stressed that the problem began a while back when they identified that “At the beginning of last decade there were only two isolated breeding populations of Iberian lynx remaining in the world, located in southern Spain, and totaling about 100 adult animals, with only 25 breeding females.”[ii] Studies made by the same organization identified that by 2007, the numbers of the species were still troubling enough to believe that the species was in extreme danger of becoming extinct.[iii] To make matters even more serious, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessed in the same year that “the numbers were not sufficient for the survival of the species in the long term, putting this wild cat on the brink of extinction.”[iv] The severity of their living conditions and the rapid decline of the population even in light of attempts to conserve the species proved that the threat of disappearance was not like any other experienced before.
A few years later, in 2009, things started to look up for the lynx. But was it enough? After the initial scare with the populations reaching an all-time low, gears were set into motion.
Efforts made by the Spanish national and regional administrations, in conjunction with the European Union and some NGOs, raised the population numbers for the first time since the threat was initially assessed by the WWF.[v] Census performed in 2009 confirmed that “around 230 individuals, including 7 adults that have been introduced in the area of Guadalmellato (Córdoba, Spain), which should open up a third Lynx territory. To this figure we have to add the 81 animals that are part of the Captive Breeding Programme.”[vi]
However, these measures, while successful in their own way, were not enough to make this problem go away. Troubling news about the current status of the Iberian lynx arose when researchers realized that the measures had not done enough to definitively save the species. Some time after measures were taken to try and balance out the scales, the results deemed the efforts as “signs of recovery, the species future is still fragile.”[vii] The stagnant condition in which the population of this wild cat species had been in ever since the initial statistical finding was unprecedented. In other words, even though the measures employed to combat the rapid death rates of these animals were effective in their own way, the population’s size was still troubling. This proved that conservation attempts had advanced the species to a certain point but not enough for it to subsist and crawl off of the endangered list, a weight still carried today.
The breed of lynx studied in the Iberian Peninsula, researchers have concluded, is one of the most genetically and physiologically distinctive species in the genus.[viii] The loss of this species would mean the loss of an entire genetic pool of information that could imply major losses for the community of scientists studying these creatures. If lost, the damage would set back researchers in their pursuit to comprehend the genetic and behavioral characteristics of the other lynx populations around the world. A setback in this field could imply a much larger extinction, since other lynx populations are facing similar, if not the same, situations as the ones living in the outskirts of Spain and Portugal. Ultimately, the success or failure of the entire genus rests on the information that is hidden in the genes of those on their way to extinction. If saved, the data retrieved from the continuous study of these creatures would ensure the survival of other close relatives that are part of the worldwide dwindling lynx population.[ix]
Throughout the years after the initial issue popped up, the world has seen a lot of the Iberian lynx. Through effective campaigns to support the lynx population, true progress has given the species a chance to survive. Still, this progress has not been enough to save these magnificent creatures from someday disappearing from the face of our, and their, Earth. Each day, lynx mothers struggle to feed their kittens and others of the same species also struggle to fulfill the most basic of their needs: food and shelter. It is in our hands to give back to the lynx what we have taken. It is in our hands to preserve the scrublands and all the creatures that influence its delicate cycle. It is in our hands to save these animals and not let another pair of neon eyes fade.
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[i] “iberian lynx,” wwf, world wide fund for nature, 2015, http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/species/profiles/mammals/iberian_lynx/
[ii] ibid.
[iii] ibid.
[iv] ibid.
[v] ibid.
[vi]ibid.
[vii] ibid.
[viii] “lynx species – spanish lynx (lynx pardinus),” big cat rescue: a non-profit educational sanctuary, big cat rescue, 2014, http://bigcatrescue.org/iberian-lynx-facts/
[ix] W. E. Johnson, J. A. Godoy, F. Palomares, M. Delibes, M. Fernandes, E. Revilla, and S. J. O’brien, “Phylogenetic and Phylogeographic Analysis of Iberian Lynx Populations,” Journal of Heredity 95, no. 1 (2004), doi: 10.1093/jhered/esh006
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