The return of the Iberian lynx (Lynx Pardinus) is seen by many as one of the great successes achieved by conservation policies. The species has passed in the last decades of touching the extinction to its recent recthtelogation by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN): these felines were no longer considered as a species “in danger” but as “vulnerable.”
End of idyll. The reintroduction of this animal could also be seen as a success in marketingwhich turned a stretched and disdain animal on the Iberian Fauna icon. Now that image seems to be blurring.
At least among farmers and hunters, as Ramón Pérez de Ayala, responsible for the WWF species program, recently explained, in statements collected by eldiario.es.
Frustrated reintroductions. The misgivings from the agricultural sector are not exactly new, but in recent months their complaints seem to have won some battles. The most recent, in Catalonia, where last month the Government ended the plans to reintroduce to the cat.
It was not the first battle that lost the lynx in recent months. In October, Ministry of Environment, Housing and Planning of the Territory of the Board of Castilla y León approved the reintroduction of the lynx In Palencia But he left the Zamoran Duero’s cannons outside the project, according to The local press explained at the time. In this province, the rejection by the agricultural sector had become evident months ago.
What’s happening. The obstacles to this animal could be striking but respond to the complexity of integrating the feline reintroduction plans with the agricultural system in the new habitats designated for the species. The problem does not have so much to do with the lynx but with one of its prey: rabbits.
The rabbit is a central part of the lynx diet. So much so that Fear of farmers and hunters is in the possibility that the plans for reintroduction of the lynx will be accompanied by protection measures for rabbits.
Different sectors, different perspectives. For hunters the problem is double: first because they must compete for dams With these animals; second to the possibility that the protection measures of lynx and rabbits prevent the hunting of the latter.
For farmers the problem is with the possibility that the measures trigger the population of rabbits. These herbivores, They have denounced Sometimes from the agricultural sector, they suppose a threat to crops, which unleashes the misgivings of the sector to the plans to reintroduce to its predator.
The furtivism, another threat. The problems for the lynx and their lace in Spanish ecosystems do not stay there. Last year for example He denounced the illegal hunting of these cats in Murcia, and the impact of this on the probabilities of success of reintroduction efforts.
In recent decades, problems with the attacks of these carnivores to farm animals have also been occasionally recorded. A study Published in 2013, he pointed out that in the previous six years 40 lynx attacks were counted that were charged with the lives of hundreds of farm animals. The problem He has persisted In the last decade.
Not just the lynx. Problems with carnivorous reintroductions such as lynx, wolf or bear in Spain have become a almost constant confrontation focus between environmentalists and the agricultural and hunting sectors. The problem is not exclusive to the country even of the Peninsula.
So much so that from Europe the possibility of lowering the protection of the wolf seems aimed at materializing in a matter of weeks.
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Image | Konrads Bilderwerkstatt
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