{"id":4433,"date":"2023-10-26T20:09:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theeuropeannaturetrust.com\/?p=4433"},"modified":"2023-10-31T08:45:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T08:45:19","slug":"iberian-lynx-comeback-tent-visits-cbd-habitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theeuropeannaturetrust.com\/iberian-lynx-comeback-tent-visits-cbd-habitat\/","title":{"rendered":"Iberian lynx comeback: TENT visits CBD-Habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The recovery of the Iberian lynx is one of the world\u2019s greatest conservation comebacks. In October 2023, The European Nature Trust\u2019s Jacob Dykes visited our partners at CBD-Habitat \u2013 an organisation that has played a key role in Spain\u2019s Iberian lynx recovery.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Under an azure sky in the Toledo district, just 30-minutes trainride from Madrid, the scent of petrichor from the Mediterranean forest hits the nose. As red kites leap from oak to oak, Samuel Pla, senior technician at CBD-Habitat foundation, slows the car engine to a halt and winds down the window. He strains to hear the sharp, piercing sound of a magpie\u2019s call \u2013 \u2018it\u2019s an alarm sound, you hear it?\u2019 he says. \u2018We\u2019re close now to the lynx\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For an hour this afternoon, we had been tracking wild Iberian lynx using a telemetry antenna which picks up the location and distance of radio-collared lynxes \u2013 an activity that CBD-Habitat use to monitor the growth and distribution of Spain\u2019s recovering population. The blue flash of the magpie\u2019s wings drops past an oak tree on the Mediterranean savanna, and for a brief moment, it cuts past the silhouette of a cat-like shape, hard to pick out as night creeps forth. \u2018Tres linces!\u2019 whispers Nuria El Khadir, director of CBD-Habitat. With all this tracking equipment, it was the humble magpie, nature\u2019s sentry, that pointed out the lynx to us. And not just one, but three \u2013 a mother with two cubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pla pulls a thermal imaging scope from his bag and hands it to me. I can just make out three surprisingly large, spotted figures with the naked eye. With the imaging scope, they illuminate into a burning white, seen tracking a big group of rabbits a few hundred meters ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n