{"id":57488,"date":"2025-04-28T12:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T12:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/57488\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T12:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T12:56:07","slug":"furry-success-another-litter-of-vulnerable-iberian-lynx-cubs-born-in-spains-donana-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/57488\/","title":{"rendered":"FURRY SUCCESS: Another litter of vulnerable Iberian Lynx cubs born in Spain’s Do\u00f1ana National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

CONSERVATIONISTS at the El Acebuche Iberian lynx captive breeding centre in Almonte, part of Do\u00f1ana National Park, are celebrating the arrival of two new Iberian Lynx cubs \u2013 marking the fifth litter of the 2025 season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The births, announced by the Autonomous National Parks Agency (OAPN). Previous litters, each producing three cubs, were delivered by females Madro\u00f1a, Parra, Narsil, and Sardina earlier in March.<\/p>\n

One part of the breeding centre\u2019s excellent strategy is to tell the public the names of individual mother lynxes (and sometimes the fathers!), to stimulate interest.<\/p>\n

This is now the fifth litter of lynxes since Madro\u00f1a (a prolific mother) opened the season on Thursday, March 6. There have now been 14 lynxes born this season \u2013 three cubs in each previous litter \u2013 and Kolia and Oleander are yet to give birth.<\/p>\n

The OAPN noted that for the latest litter the confinement of Tamesis, a first-time mother, was \u201cunprecedented\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tamesis gave birth to a stillborn foetus, but \u201ctwo days later, surprisingly,\u201d she continued to have contractions, and finally, two healthy cubs were born.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the OAPN has stated that this is \u201ca unique case\u201d that they will study \u201cto better understand the species.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The female Madro\u00f1a, who gave birth to three healthy cubs on March 6, was followed by Parra, Narsil, and Sardina, who each gave birth to three kittens.<\/p>\n

These three births were estimated to have occurred between the 9th and 12th, as the Iberian lynx\u2019s gestation period lasts between 63 and 65 days.<\/p>\n

With this year\u2019s litter, Madro\u00f1a has now given birth to a total of 17 kittens over the seven breeding seasons in which she has participated, \u201cmaking a very significant contribution to the recovery of her species.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00e1mesis gave birth between March 12 and 13, while the last to give birth will be Kolia and Oleander, who are expected to give birth near the end of this month.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that seven \u201cgenetically suitable\u201d pairs were established for this season. Specifically, the seven pairs chosen were Hamma and Parra; Madro\u00f1a and Gitano; T\u00e1mesis and Juglans; Narsil and Junquillo; Oleander and Quetro; Sardina and J\u00fapiter; and Kolia and Tint\u00edn.<\/p>\n

According to the Autonomous Agency of National Parks, the pairs were established at the end of 2024 and were in the \u201csocialisation phase\u201d in December.<\/p>\n

These pairs are chosen based on genetic information. Last December, they were in the \u201cfull pre-rut season,\u201d and the centre\u2019s work at that time was to socialise the selected pairs so they \u201cwould get to know and accept each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the same number of pairs established last year, when a total of twelve lynx cubs were born.<\/p>\n

Likewise, three cubs were also born at the La Olivilla Iberian Lynx Breeding Centre in Santa Elena (Ja\u00e9n) in early March.<\/p>\n

A spokeman for OAPN, announcing the recent births, said that the next phase in rescuing the lynx will be to cross-breed the La Olivilla and El Acebuche populations, guaranteeing variability \u201cfor greater success for the species.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is important for all residents of Andaluc\u00eda to know that it is strictly forbidden to cause deliberate harm to a lynx: this would probably result in an immediate prison sentence for the perpetrator.<\/p>\n

Even an accident involving lynxes, when you are driving, must be reported to the police immediately. Licence-plate recognition cameras are operating in lynx territory.<\/p>\n

The Iberian lynx is a breed of wild cat, native to the Iberian Peninsula. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (IUCN = International Union for the Conservation of Nature).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the 20th century, the Iberian lynx population had declined because of overhunting, poaching, fragmentation of suitable habitats, and the population decline of its main prey species, the European rabbit, caused by myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease.<\/p>\n

Fossil evidence suggests that the lynx has been present in Iberia for a million years.<\/p>\n

By the turn of the 21st century, the Iberian lynx was on the verge of extinction. In 2002, only 94 individuals remained alive in two isolated populations in Andaluc\u00eda.<\/p>\n

Conservation measures have been implemented since then, which included improving habitat, restocking of rabbits and monitoring the lynxes.<\/p>\n

Between 2012 and 2024, the population increased to some 2,021 individuals. This terrific success story has led to the lynx being reclassified. It is now only \u201cvulnerable\u201d, rather than \u201cendangered\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CONSERVATIONISTS at the El Acebuche Iberian lynx captive breeding centre in Almonte, part of Do\u00f1ana National Park, are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[30188,18104,8626,70,18106,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-57488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-lynx","9":"tag-news-spain","10":"tag-newspaper","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-the-olive-press","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114415703345745126","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}