Animal Directory Featured species in the planned Conservation Center habitat
Photo: Diego Delso CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons
Iberian Lynx
Lynx pardinus
Young Explorer Notes
Three quick things to know about the Iberian Lynx.
- Superpower
The world's most endangered cat species at the start of the 21st century — fewer than 100 individuals remained in 200…
- Home
The heart of our save-the-species mission.
- How to help
Friends who need our help
Vulnerable means they could disappear if we do not protect their homes.
Fun facts for everyone
- The world's most endangered cat species at the start of the 21st century — fewer than 100 individuals remained in 2002, restricted to two isolated populations in southern Spain.
- Diet is more than 80% European rabbit; the lynx recovery is locked tightly to the recovery of the rabbit, which is itself listed as Endangered.
- Distinctively short tail with a black tip and long, prominent tufts on each ear, a "beard" of cheek fur, and a leopard-spotted coat that no other lynx species shares.
- IUCN downlisted the Iberian lynx from Critically Endangered (2002) to Endangered (2015) and then to Vulnerable (2024) following multi-country captive-breeding and reintroduction work — one of the great conservation reversals of the modern era.
- Wild population has grown from ~100 to over 2,000 in two decades thanks to LIFE-funded EU recovery programmes spanning Spain and Portugal.
From the master plan
The Iberian Lynx is the finale species of the Conservation Center — staged along the exit walk so that the last living thing guests see in the park is a cat that was, twenty years ago, weeks away from extinction. The species ties the zone’s “take action for wildlife” pillar to a concrete, recent success the guests’ own lifetimes have already witnessed.
IUCN status sourced from the Iberian Lynx assessment (Rodríguez & Calzada, 2024) on the IUCN Red List — recently downlisted to Vulnerable after sustained population recovery, one of the most cited wins in modern feline conservation.
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