Save the World's Rarest Cat By Doing One Thing, Say Researchers
Conservationists can ensure the world's rarest wild cat escapes extinction by doing one simple thing, say researchers — but they need to do it soon.
What’s the secret? Start factoring in the effects of climate change when deciding how to save endangered species, says a new study. For the Iberian lynx, the most endangered wild feline of all, conservationists had better hurry. There are only 300 or so left in the wild.
The Iberian lynx lives now only in two small areas of Spain's Andalusian region. At one time it was plentiful throughout Spain, Portugal and southern France. Years of habitat loss, poaching and a diminished food supply have decimated its numbers. Should it become extinct, the Iberian lynx will be the first wild cat to do so in 2,000 years.
Despite aggressive conservation efforts, including a captive breeding program, today the Iberian lynx is just barely holding on. The good news is that lynx population numbers are up from 94 two decades ago to 312 today, thanks to years of dedicated effort.
The bad news is that if conservationists don't adjust their current management plans — which this study says fail to account for the effects of climate change — this wild cat may be lost forever.
Anticipated climate change impacts "will rapidly and severely decrease lynx abundance and probably lead to its extinction in the wild within 50 years, even with strong global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions," the study, published in July in the journal Nature Climate Change, concluded.
How Exactly Do We Factor in the Effects of Climate Change?
Here's the key: Don't focus on the lynxes, focus on the rabbits. According to researchers, the Iberian lynx depends on the European rabbit as a primary food source. In fact, 90 percent of the lynx's diet is rabbit. Adults need to eat a rabbit a day. A female feeding cubs needs three rabbits a day.
Unfortunately, the effects of climate change are destroying the rabbits' habitat in southern Spain, pushing them to move farther north in search of food and more favorable conditions. This study concludes that there won't be enough rabbits to support any substantial growth in the lynx population in the Andalusian region.
Over $123 million have been spent to date trying to repopulate the Iberian lynx and reintroduce it into this area, which is its original range. That's the problem, according to the study. Researchers say the lynxes need to be introduced to locations targeted by their food source to give the species any real chance of survival.
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Iberian Lynx image via Shutterstock.