On a ‘red letter day’ for animals in Portugal, the ICNF forestry commission has announced that a second litter of Iberian Lynx has been born into the wild, in the Alentejo, bring the numbers of this threatened species existing out of captivity to 22.
A picture of all four cubs of Lagunilla – a female release into Vale do Guadiana natural park near Mértola last year – is all the more auspicious as it proves the conditions in the park are excellent, says the commission, stressing litters are rarely this large, and even if four cubs are born, not all are expected to survive.
The photograph shows the cubs to be all “apparently in good condition”, and well beyond the first ‘fragile’ months of life.
Lagunilla’s offspring are the second litter detected in the park recently. The first – just one caught on camera – was that of Jacaranda (click here).
The animals are part of the Luso-Spanish project LIFE+Iberlince which so far has released 19 lynx into the wild, two of which, Myrtilis and Kayakweru, have since been found dead – one from a viral infection, the other from poisoning.
