Only last year it was hailed as a conservation success story: the Iberian lynx, which had been close to extinction, had sprung back to life thanks to a two-decade-long effort to expand the population.
Now, however, that progress is at risk after several regional governments in Spain acceded to pressure from farmers and hunters to block the reintroduction of the species into the wild.
Claiming the wildcat preys on livestock, as well as rabbits and partridges, opponents of the lynx have made breakthroughs, threatening to undo efforts that helped its population grow to about 2,000 across Spain and Portugal.
Often the lynx was falling victim not to serious objections but to unrelated political bickering, according to Ramón Pérez de Ayala of the WWF. Often, it involves the far-right Vox party, which claims to champion the rights of farmers.
In Aragón, opposition to the lynx programme was led by the then agriculture minister, Ángel Samper, a member of Vox. Samper claimed the wildcats were attacking sheep. Pérez de Ayala, Spain’s leading expert on the lynx, says attacks on livestock are practically nonexistent.
Jorge Valero, the head of the Aragón government’s hunting and fishing department, also of Vox, opposed the reintroduction of the lynx, saying: “It’s wrong to bring them back just because they were here 20 or 100 years ago. It makes us look like Jurassic Park.”
Vox split from the Aragón government last summer amid claims that Valero and another minister were apologists for the former dictator Francisco Franco.
But it is not only there that Spain’s native wildcat is under pressure. Last month the Catalan government agreed to demands by the farmers’ association Revolta Pagesa (Peasants’ Revolt) to block the introduction of wolves, bears and lynx, despite a surfeit of rabbits in much of the region. Pérez de Ayala says rabbits make up 90% of the lynx’s diet.
The plan was to release lynx into the south-western areas of Noguera and Garrigues, where there has been an explosion in the rabbit population. However, the Catalan government has acceded to the farmers’ preferred option of culling the rabbits with aluminium phosphide.
Although the lynx has been welcomed in much of Castilla y León in Spain’s north-west, local authorities around Zamora and the Douro River are less enthusiastic.
“The hunters don’t want them, nor do the farmers,” said José Martín, the mayor of Almaraz de Duero, from the conservative People’s party. “They say they will attract more tourism but it’s not worth it for the impact it has on our way of life.”
Pérez de Ayala said the lynx was often being caught up in unrelated arguments. “Sometimes it’s because the local authority is trying to put pressure on the government for something that has nothing to do with the lynx or because of political infighting,” he said.
Much of the opposition comes from the hunting lobby, he added, echoing a post on X on Monday by Hugo Morán Fernández, Spain’s secretary of state for the environment. He said: “The problem arising from the extermination of certain species is that there will be no one left to blame for the decline of hunting or livestock farming.”
Twenty-five years ago the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) was close to extinction, having been classified, along with wolves, as vermin. After the efforts of a coalition including the EU and regional and national governments in Spain and Portugal, as well as wildlife NGOs and local people, its status was downgraded last year from “endangered” to “vulnerable”.
Last week Sara Aagesen, the environment minister, oversaw the release of two female lynx in Murcia in southeast Spain, bringing the total in the region to 20.
