Iberian

have the best Iberian ham

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He September 6, 1940the BOE published an unusual decree for its time. In the midst of the postwar period, in a Spain that rebuilds what it can, the State decides to protect a town of a thousand souls in the mountains of Salamanca. The official reason: the wishes of “excellent artists, both national and foreign,” who see in The Pool a “faithful guardian of the beauty of his hamlet, which has suggested so many masterpieces.” That day, La Alberca becomes the first municipality in Spain declared a National Historical-Artistic Monument. A precedent that today involves more than 500 urban centers throughout the peninsula. Eighty-five years later, National Geographic noted La Alberca as the most beautiful town in Spain to eat Iberian ham. And the phrase is loaded with gunpowder: what about the five jotas of Jabugo or Aracena, both in the province of Huelva? What happens with the Lolo from Barcelona? What do we do with the denominations of Monesterio or Zabra, on the Extremaduran side? From Guijuelo to Los Pedroches, Spain has plenty of master ham makers. But La Alberca is special. Because more than competing for production, it does so for experience. The pond town. The name comes from Arabic Al-Bereka: “the pond.” The town lives at about 1,000 meters above sea level, in the Las Batuecas-Sierra de Francia Natural Park, 75 kilometers southwest of the capital of Salamanca. The pool has 1,034 inhabitants according to the INE 2025, less than any average secondary school. Although there are now more accommodation places than registered residents. It was not the ham but the architecture that justified the 1940 decree. On a ground floor of granite rock, with the air of a fortress, the adobe and wood walls rise to one or two heights. It is beautiful, because they form a framework that is reminiscent of Mudejar art. There are intact medieval streets, balconies full of flowers and the Plaza Mayor has no war wounds. The best example is found in the church of Our Lady of the Assumption, from the 18th century, design by Manuel de Lara Churriguera. Does the last name sound familiar to you? He was the nephew of the architects responsible for the New Cathedral and the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca capital. The family tree does not lose strength in the branches. The pig that goes on its way. Here, the people bless a pig every June 13 (festival of San Antonio de Padua) and release it through the streets. The animal wears a bell around its neck and the neighbors feed it during those seven months. He January 17Saint Anton’s Day, raffled before the doors of the church. The benefits go to the brotherhood. There is even a granite sculpture in his honor in the square. The origin of this tradition is attributed to the converts of the 16th century, who used the pig as a public demonstration of Christian faith to avoid inquisitorial suspicion. Curious alibi. There is also the tradition of the turroneras, a true institution in the province, with its own statue in the market of Salamanca capital, unofficial announcement of the beginning of Christmas – something more tangible than Abel Caballero’s Vigo lights, if you ask me. First class ham. Although La Alberca does not cure hams on an industrial scale, its showcase is the most representative of Salamancan Iberian ham. The main ham has the Guijuelo Denomination of Originthe oldest and the one with the highest production volume of the four Iberian DOPs in Spain. Guijuelo, at 1,050 meters above sea level and with average temperatures of 12º C until well into spring, has an exceptional microclimate. It is literal: it allows a much longer natural conservation than in the hot southern lands, being able to salt the ham without artificial cold until the month of March. The natural cold does what an industrial snack has to do in other warehouses. By the way, the DOP has a supra-autonomous nature: it covers the pastures of Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha for the breeding of the Iberian pig, but the production process is limited to 78 municipalities of Salamanca. La Alberca is among them, in the heart of the Sierra de Francia, which gives its name to one of the regions of the DOP. We talk about more than 200 industries (distributed between Guijuelo, Ledrada, Sotoserrano, Miranda del Castañar, Béjar, Candelario, Frádes de la Sierra or Tamames) and exact requirements: pure Iberian breed cattle or a cross of 75% of Iberian blood with Duroc-Jersey. And the pieces must weigh at least 4.5 kg in the case of ham and 3.5 kg in the case of the shoulder, with an elongated and stylized shape, preserving the original black hoof. And it is estimated that La Alberca hams are exported to fourteen countries in the European Union, with France as the main destination, in addition to the United Kingdom, Korea, Japan and Mexico. The best customer for Salamanca ham is the neighboring country, as we know. Without us it does not exist Bayonne jambon. Beautiful inside and out. Like the pig, the beauty of La Alberca is mixed. It belongs to the network of Most Beautiful Towns in Spain. The Valley of Las Batuecas, accessible from La Alberca, concentrates a Carmelite monastery, cave paintings of the Canchal de las Cabras Pintadas and almost total silence. The route to Hastiala Peak, the highestexceeds 1,700 meters. From the top and on clear days you can see the Picos de Europa. In a few weeks they will celebrate La Loa, the popular sacramental car of medieval origin that mixes popular satire and religion. And in November the Calbochada recovers: roasted chestnuts in the square and a lot of mountain folklore, from which the surname also comes. It is normal that National Geographic has been full of praise. And although this usually brings the usual problem, more beds than inhabitants, it is worth getting to know it and tasting its food, not necessarily … Read more

We had always believed that all rabbits on the Iberian Peninsula were the same type of rabbit. we believed wrong

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The humble rabbit that we find in any of our mountains has, historically, been the great protagonist and the fundamental pillar of the Iberian ecosystems. Jewels of our fauna such as the Iberian lynx or the imperial eagle depend on it, and until now we all thought that the councils of the peninsula belonged to a single species, the European rabbit. A new paradigm. However, science has just turned our taxonomic tree upside down, since a new and comprehensive study published in the magazine Biological Conservation and led by IESA-CSIC researchers has confirmed what genetics had been hinting at for some time: two different species of rabbits coexist on the Iberian Peninsula. A change. The debate is not entirely new, since previous work had already documented differences between rabbits from the east and north of the peninsula and those from the southwest, which also extend across northern Africa. Until today, these differences were resolved by dividing the rabbits in two subspecies: Oryctolagus cuniculus cuniculus and Oryctolagus cuniculus algirus. But now science has said that this is not the case, and it is accompanied by a large amount of evidence from different areas that go beyond DNA itself. Here researchers have synthesized definitive evidence in genetics, morphology, ecology, reproduction, parasitology and even the microbiome of these animals. And the conclusion is that the differences are so profound that the southwest Iberian lineage must be elevated to the category of an independent species, officially being called the Iberian rabbit. What remains For its part, the lineage from the east and north of the peninsula, and its populations introduced from the rest of the world, such as in Australia, will maintain the classic name of European rabbit. Because? The question we can ask ourselves in light of this study is: How is it possible that two animals so similar to the naked eye are different species? The answer lies in the ice, since the genetic differences between both lineages are estimated at about two million years. And during the Pleistocene ice ages, the original populations of rabbits were isolated in different “climate refuges” in southern Europe. One group was confined to the Ebro valley area, while the other survived in the vicinity of the Gulf of Cádiz. This geographic isolation sustained for millennia forced different evolutionary paths and today the evidence even points to incipient speciation, with studies reporting chromosomal incompatibilities when both lineages intersect in the areas where they currently coincide. Its consequences. This change in status is not a mere academic whim or a laboratory technicality, since it has consequences. By being recognized as a unique species, exclusive to the Iberian Peninsula (and part of North Africa), they completely change the rules of the game for conservation. For example, the areas where the threatened Iberian lynx lives coincide geographically, for the most part, with the distribution area of ​​this new species in decline. That is why saving the Iberian rabbit is, literally, saving the lynx. Images | David Atkins In Xataka | “We are fighting Satan”: the US war to save bees from the invasion of a murderous creature

Europe wants to put an end to the particular Iberian exception of the Spanish train. And Spain has a clear answer: no.

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There are investments and investments. More or less necessary. More or less large. But there are also more or less viable ones. And, of course, the Ministry of Transport considers that the European Commission’s proposal to change all roads from Iberian gauge to international gauge is anything but viable. And they have a good reason: 30,000 million euros. What does Europe want? In October 2025, The European Commission presented its project to cement, once and for all, the connection between Madrid and Lisbon with high-speed trains. After many delays, if the plans are fulfilled and both cities end up being united in 2030 with a single train, high speed will arrive on this line 20 years late. In the writing The bases that the routes must follow are reflected and there is an important paragraph in them: With the ambition to fully integrate the Lisbon–Madrid high-speed rail connection into the broader high-speed network in Spain and France, adopting the European standard nominal gauge of 1,435 mm is a key step. In this way, the competitiveness of long-distance passenger traffic will be strengthened. By connecting Portugal and Spain, and extending to France, the Lisbon–Madrid high-speed rail connection has a clear cross-border and Union dimension In it it is clear that we are talking about the Madrid-Lisbon line but on the occasion of this text, public entities must study the economic viability of migrating the railway network to the international gauge and definitively abandoning the Iberian gauge. The answer. No. Simple and concise. According to The Countrya medium that claims to have had access to internal documents of the Ministry of Transportation, the Government’s response to this migration is a resounding “no.” The reasons are as simple as that it would take 30 years of works and an investment of 30,000 million euros to reverse the Iberian exceptionalism of the Spanish and Portuguese train. In the documents that Spain will present to Brussels, it is specified that the matter is not viable in its entirety or in part since the possibility of installing “third threads or lanes to achieve mixed widths” was contemplated, they explain in the medium. No, no and no. They explain in The Country that the Ministry of Transportation rejects all the options that have been put on the table: Changing exclusively the lines of the European corridors: it would leave, according to Transport, more than 5,000 km of the network isolated. Implement a mixed width with third rails or threads: discarded due to the complexity of the work and the high maintenance cost Change all Iberian gauge roads: Transport considers it unapproachable although it has been the most studied option because it is ideal. What is this track width? Spain, since the 19th century it has lived in an Iberian exceptionality next to Portugal. Throughout this century, the railway was gaining followers all over the world. During its expansion, the lines were built with different track widths, taking into account the particularities of the terrain. In Europe, the number of tracks built with a width of 1,435 mm multiplied and ended up becoming established. Everything above it is considered “wide gauge” and below it as “narrow gauge” because those 1,435 mm were accepted as the standard. This is how the international gauge was born. In Spain, however, we chose to build our railway network on a track gauge of 1,672 millimeters, defended by three engineers who were entrusted with the task of projecting the future of the Spanish train. They argued that a wider track width allowed the use of more powerful locomotives and that this was essential in a mountainous country like ours. And the consequences? The consequences were immediate. Already in the middle of the 19th century From Portugal they asked Spain by letter to desist from building their roads with this new gauge because they would be isolated from Europe. And the problem, evidently, was greater for Portugal, which was dragged along by the Spanish decision. Spain, as you imagine, did not give up and now lives between three gauges of road: the international one (for about 4,000 km of high speed), the Iberian one (for 13,000 km of Cercanías) and the metric width (1,210 km for especially mountainous terrain). This is a problem for connectivity between tracks because trains cannot jump from one to another, except for the Talgo Avril. And it’s an advantage. At least for Renfe. And Renfe can take advantage of this particularity in some very specific points on the Peninsula. For example, in Madrid-Galicia, international gauge and Iberian gauge are used, already in the Galician part. Only Renfe has trains that can jump from one track gauge to another, so competition is eliminated. And the same will happen in Portugal. The connection between Madrid and Lisbon is being built on an international gauge but the Portuguese high-speed line between Lisbon and Porto will operate on an Iberian gauge. This leaves Renfe as the only company that could operate a Madrid-Porto train passing through Lisbon without the need to transfer. Now it is better understood why Renfe will invest in converting the Avrils fixed gauge on variable gauge trains and why Transportes believes that Portugal is a great market opportunity. Photo | Falk2 In Xataka | Renfe offers its juiciest contract: 4,000 million euros to buy trains. And everything indicates that he will not stay in Spain

After having avoided the worst of the great European heat wave, Spain has just launched the “Iberian oven”

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The countdown has begun. If we pay attention to the European weather forecast model, in Spain all the mechanisms have just been activated to find temperatures between 42 and 44 degrees in a good part of the center, west and south of the country. In recent years, rivers of ink have flowed about the idea of ​​the ‘Iberian oven’. Well, now we have it back. What exactly is the “Iberian oven”? Although we associate extreme heat with the eruptions of Saharan air masses, that is not usually the case. Not only because, no matter how hot the air arrives from Africa, it usually comes with suspended particles that block the maximums. But because we don’t need it: Spain has more than enough capacity to turn its own air into hell. And it happens a lot: usually when a mass of warm air (often combined with Saharan air) is blocked over the Peninsula. High pressures, clear skies, almost absolute stability… all of this causes the air to descend, compress and increase temperatures greatly. It is not uncommon for them to exceed 45 degrees in these situations. And is that going to affect us now? The forecast is quite clear: more than 40 degrees in the interior and west with anomalies of more than eight degrees above normal for this time of year. Between Sunday the 5th and Tuesday the 7th there will be peaks of up to 35 in the north. And none of that is going to be the most exasperating: the worst is going to be the nights that, in many places, are not going to drop below 25 degrees. Is it a “heat dome”? Well, the term ‘heat dome’ is a copy of the English “heat dome” and became fashionable after the 2021 pacific northwest episode. In addition to its ‘spectacularity’, it is usually used because it has no technical criteria behind it. Unlike heat waves, anything with a configuration slightly resembling a “heat dome” is a heat dome. Yes, yes, it will be; although it doesn’t help much that it is. Why should we care? Above all, because it is not an isolated event. Europe has not yet left the most severe heat wave on record. The dead are counted in the hundreds (orpossibly in the thousands). Continuing to chain extremely high temperatures is not good news. Image | Tropical Tidbits In Xataka | In 2014, French television imagined August 2050 as hell. This week’s heat wave has already overcome it

VivaGym buys Synergym and creates the first Iberian fitness giant

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VivaGym, the gym chain low cost controlled by the American fund Providence Equity Partners, has closed the purchase of Synergym in what will be, when regulators give the go-ahead, the largest business operation in the history of the fitness Spanish. The resulting group will exceed 450 clubs between Spain and Portugal, will have a turnover of more than 270 million euros and will have close to one million members. according to account The Confidential. It is the biggest move by Cristina Burzako, former director of Movistar+, since she took over in November 2025, and Providence’s fourth purchase in the Iberian market since she landed in VivaGym two years ago. Why is it important. Spain has 1.4 million more gym subscribers than two years ago. The exercise craze is as real as it is recent (on this scale), and has reached the point where the social trend becomes an investment thesis. In figures. The sector’s jump explains why Providence is hitting the accelerator right now: 6.2 million subscribers in Spain at the end of 2024, compared to 4.8 million in 2022. 29% more in two years. The sector invoiced 1,650 million euros in 2025. More than double that before the pandemic, a clear turning point. 3.3% of the Spanish GDP is already represented by sport and fitnesscompared to 1.5%-2% of the European average. The backdrop. The gym fever in Spain is not an intuition, it is a statistical series that we have verified with the five-year CSD surveys on sporting habits. And depending on how you measure it, it tells two stories that point in the same direction. The Ministry’s official survey shows how many Spaniards say they subscribe to a gym, including municipal sports centers and sports clubs. The EuropeActive series, on the other hand, measures only subscriptions to private chains, which are the ones that VivaGym and Synergym dispute. The former has gone from 3% to 30.7% in a quarter of a century. The second has added 1.3 million net members since 2015. The two curves accelerate from 2022. Between the lines. The key phrase was said by Juan del Río, former CEO of VivaGym, a few months ago: “A regional champion should not have less than 500 gyms on the peninsula if he wants to defend himself well.” how to collect Play2book. That figure marks the threshold that VivaGym has just touched. It is the same logic that Mercadona, Dia and Lidl applied two decades ago, or Ryanair and Vueling shortly after: When a business depends on tight margins and volume, size stops being an option and becomes a condition of survival. A chain of 100 gyms does not negotiate the same rents as one of 500. It does not buy equipment at the same prices. You can’t afford the same investment in branding. He low cost It only works if you are big, and you are only big if you buy from someone who is not yet big. Providence does not buy gyms to manage them, it buys them to build a platform large enough to squeeze the landlords, squeeze purchasing centers and, when the time comes, sell to another fund or take it public. It is the same manual with which the oligopolies of the retail food and European aviation low cost. The contrast. The mirror is Basic-Fit, the listed Dutch operator that has more than 1,500 clubs in Europe and has shown that the model scales. It went from 90 to 139 centers in Spain in a single year. They are known for being “the ones with the backpacks”. VivaGym aspires to something similar, backpacks aside, but without leaving the Iberian Peninsula. But there is an important difference: Basic-Fit is a listed company. VivaGym, on the other hand, remains owned by a fund that, sooner or later, will want to exit. Yes, but. The sector has a common flaw: profitability is elusive. Between 2020 and 2023, the fifteen main chains accumulated more than 420 million euros in losses. In 2023, only five companies turned a profit. Billing is growing, but rents, debt and investment in openings eat into the margins. He low cost It works if you have scale. Without it, it’s a race against debt. The big question. Who is next? Synergym is not Providence’s first purchase in Spain, but the third: in the summer of 2024 absorbed ten Smartfit clubs and in November of the same year acquired Altafit for around 200 million euros. The operation with Synergym is the fourth coup in less than two years. There remain mid-sized players who fit into a second round: McFit, Fitness Park, Anytime Fitness, BeOne and a handful of regional chains. But the margin is getting smaller: the top ten chains already concentrate 54% of the market, according to DBK. The first five, 37%. The pattern is the same as always: when a sector begins to appeal to international capital, it stops being an open market and becomes an accelerated oligopoly. It happened with supermarkets, telecoms and airlines low cost. Gym fever is real. What is not yet clear is who will keep the account. In Xataka | The big lie of “cuqui fitness”: sport has been disguised as therapy to charge you more money Featured image | VivaGym

While Spain does everything possible to preserve the Iberian wolf, one group has very different ideas: ranchers

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A few days ago, a six-year-old Iberian wolf named Raksha traveled from the Basabrere center in Lezaun (Navarra) to the Jerez de la Frontera Zoobotanical Center. A trip that aims enrich the captive breeding program started in 1995 in order to guarantee the conservation of the species. The problem is that it is being done at a time when ranchers are fighting against the presence of the wolf due to the damage it is causing. Wolf x-ray. To understand the conflict, you first have to look at the numbers. According to the last national censusSpain has 333 stable herds, which translates into about 1,600 to 1,700 individuals, and it is good news because it marks an increase of 12% compared to the previous census. Here the vast majority is concentrated north of the Duero River, although a clear trend of expansion is observed towards the south and east of the peninsula. The problem is that we are still quite far from reaching the 500 herds that can guarantee good genetic variability that allows them to survive. That is why the Government maintains until this March the classification of the wolf’s conservation status as “unfavorable.” The war in the countryside. If science is telling us that there is a need for wolves, livestock farmers affirm that there are plenty of them, and they see this due to the increase in attacks on livestock that has forced the State to inject 20 million euros annually for prevention measures with fences or mastiff dogs, as well as to compensate financially. However, organizations such as WWF denounce that management by the autonomous communities is deficient, with a lack of transparency and little progress compared to what is set out in the 2022 National Strategy. Lots of criticism. But these measures seem to be not enough for some, such as the Popular Party, which points out that in the province of Lugo, where more than 1,400 affected animals were registered, much more still needs to be done. The Xunta de Galicia itself also points out that right now the winners do not have state funds to be able to face these attacks. Although the tension is undoubtedly placed right now on the temporary inclusion of the wolf in the List of Wild Species under Special Protection Regime (LESPRE). Under this legal umbrella, any action of capture, disturbance, sale or destruction of the species’ habitat is prohibited. A legal pulse. If we look back, a few months ago various amendments and regulatory changes They allowed a partial departure of the wolf from LESPRE, authorizing controls based on hunting to mitigate economic damage. But in February 2026 a ruling from the Supreme Court turned the situation around 180 degreessince it tightened the requirements to authorize these extractions, obligatorily prioritizing non-lethal alternatives and drastically limiting hunting. This sentence has acted like gasoline in regions of northern Spain where ranchers report significant attacks on their animals, and that is why the autonomous communities threaten to report the Spanish government to the European Union for not acting on the regulation of this species. But what is clear is that the crossroads of the Iberian wolf in 2026 is the perfect reflection of a coexistence problem. While Raksha and other specimens in captivity ensure the genetic lifeline of the species, in the offices and meadows of northern Spain the formula that allows the wolf to howl without the rural world starting to tremble has not yet been found. Images | Arturo de Frias Marques In Xataka | We have managed to make the dire wolves return after 10,000 years of being extinct. The problem is that “come back” may not be the right word.

After years of absence, Aragón has reintroduced two Iberian lynxes. The question is whether it’s posturing or real help.

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Aragón has become the first autonomous community in the northwest of the peninsula to seek to recover the Iberian lynx. And yes, it is a historical milestone that will go down in the annals of conservation manuals; But the question is another: does it make any sense (on an ecological, social or economic level) to continue putting lynxes where there have not been any for decades or are we in the middle of a political marketing operation that will be expensive? The answer is more complex than it seems. What has happened? On March 17, 2026, Jorge Azcón released the first two copies of Iberian lynx on a farm in Torrecilla de Valmadrid (Zaragoza). They are one year old, the female comes from Portugal and the male from Doñana. “The step taken today is a milestone in the recovery of biodiversity in the community,” explained the acting president. And it is, in a way, the general idea in almost all communities in Spain: the Iberian lynx has become our ‘panda bear’, an animal that we are fond of, a symbol of the country and a social aspiration. Does it make sense to reintroduce the lynx? For the lynx, yes. Although we have come a long way since 2002 (when there were just 94 lynxes confined in Andalusia), we have not yet reached “favorable conservation status.” That is, 3,500 specimens (now there are 2,401) and 750 reproductive females (there are 470). Since it started in 2019, the project LIFE LynxConnect has tried to put into practice a very simple idea: Having many lynxes is of no use if those lynxes are confined to just a couple of places. We needed diverse cores and we needed to connect them together. Above all, because climate change is also affecting the entire national territory. The north of the peninsula is increasingly dry and has larger populations of rabbits: therefore, it has become viable for there to be at least two towns (in Cuenca and Palencia) which are completely outside the recent historical distribution of the lynx. And for the areas where it is released? In the short term, it is also good news. In fact, the Aragon movement cannot be understood without a basic fact: the European funds that help these types of programs (920,000 euros in this case) expired this same year. In the medium or long term, it depends on many factors: fundamentally, because everything depends on the rabbits. Rabbits? What about rabbits? Rabbits represent between 80 and 90% of the lynx’s diet. In fact, these rodents are found in the base of the food chain of more than 30 species. The good news is that, as warned A few weeks ago, the Union of Farmers and Ranchers of Castilla la Mancha “the proliferation of rabbits is a problem that has been going on for ten years, they speak of a ‘plague’ that is threatening olive groves and pistachio and almond trees, and they demand that the populations of these animals be controlled.” The bad thing is that they are not where they should be. The history of Spanish rabbits is complex. Its decline is associated with myxomatosisfirst (mid-20th century); continue with the rabbit hemorrhagic disease in the 80s; and is complicated by the arrival in 2012 of a new variant (RHDV2) that affects populations just when they were beginning to recover. To all these health problems, we must add the changes in the landscape and the disappearance of boundaries, fallow lands and traditional shelters. And the result is that the rabbits have looked for a new home. Thus slopes and roadsides have become tremendously favorable habitats (and even in motion vectors) and areas with constant food (irrigation/crops) are natural attractors of these reduced populations. Farmers fear that the arrival of the lynx will not control the pest and, on the other hand, as it will tighten conservation regulations, it may cause rabbit populations to skyrocket. Are they right? It’s hard to say. But we are going to find out. Image | Jorge Azcón – Government of Aragon In Xataka | Spain, land of (threatened) rabbits: the species has gone from “pest” to being endangered

Until 1868, an “independent” microstate inhabited the Iberian Peninsula between Portugal and Galicia: Couto Mixto

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If you travel to Santiago de Rubiasa village in the municipality of Calvos de Randínin Ourense, you can enjoy a few things: good landscapes, good food, a Romanesque church with paintings dating from the 16th century and a bronze statueinstalled since April 2008 on one side of the atrium, which shows an old man with a mustache and shaggy sideburns, wearing a hat, cape and a cane. Next to it you will find a plaque that identifies it as Delfin Modesto Brandon. This Delfín Modesto was not an Indian who returned from the Americas with his pockets lined with money, nor a confused pilgrim on his route to Compostela. Nor a particularly popular neighbor or priest. If he is still remembered today in Calvos de Randín it is because he was the last of a long and interesting line of statesmen. Of course, of a different state to Spanish or Portuguese. In the 21st century we remember Delfín Modesto because he was the last judge with executive and judicial powers of Mixed Coutoa republic that for several centuries survived as an independent territory on the peninsula. Independent of the Spanish and Portuguese courts, with its own system of administration, rights and privileges. A true historical rarity, a political hiatus in the middle of Raya that managed to survive for nearly seven centuries and there are those who point out even as one of the first European democracies. Of Couto Mixto we know better its characteristics and how it was governed and ended than its origins. Its birth usually dates back to the 12th century, to the time of the Treaty of Zamorafor which Alfonso I of Portugal (Afonso Henriques) and Alfonso VII of León They achieved an agreement that is usually marked as the birth of the Portuguese kingdom. With this backdrop and taking advantage of the birth of a new and above all extensive border between both kingdoms, Couto Mixto was created, a small portion of territory located in the intermediate basin of the Salas River who managed to stay outside the designs of Spain and Portugal. That particular “microstate” was made up only three villas: Rubias dos Mixtos, Meaus and Santiago de Rubiás, where the locals decided to establish their capital and administrative center. Small but independent Couto Mixto was small, so much so that its extension barely reached the 27 square kilometers and it did not have more than a thousand inhabitants in its census. It was probably this peculiarity, added to the fact that the place was not especially prosperous or central, that allowed it to survive with its special status for several centuries without Spain or Portugal paying it much attention. And this despite the fact that the microstate was a real rarity on the peninsular map. Because of its characteristics. And for his government system. As remember Tourism of Galiciaan organization that today promotes the place precisely for its historical interest, functioned as a kind of “federal republic” with two great administrative figures: a representative of each of the three towns, which they called “home of agreement“, and a chief judge (“xuiz“) who was elected every three years and exercised the highest authority. Its inhabitants also enjoyed a series of rights that, at least in certain aspects, made them privileged. They could choose between receiving Spanish nationality, Portuguese nationality or renouncing both and remaining as a citizen of Couto Mixto. Furthermore, they were exempt from fulfill military service. The microstate I didn’t have to provide soldiersbenefited from an interesting tax exemption and boasted freedom of trade and cultivation. Another of its oddities is that the small “microstate” enjoyed the “right of asylum”, which was applied in all cases except those of blood crimes. If we add to that peculiarity that it welcomed the “Privileged Path”a road of about six kilometers that linked Couto with the neighboring Portuguese town of Tourem and it was exempt from military or fiscal control, it will be understood why over time it became an interesting point for smuggling and fugitives. No matter how small, cornered, and ancient Couto was, it was not destined to survive forever. A few centuries after being established, Spain and Portugal decided to shelve that territorial anomaly. The negotiations were fruitful in Lisbon Treatywhich in 1864 allowed both countries to definitively establish their common border. The pact defined the Raya from the mouth of the Miño River to the union of the Caia and the Guadiana. And it swept away the microstate, which was incorporated into Spain, deprived of its privileges. Perhaps the tiny republic no longer exists, but its memory remains. In the atrium of the church of Santiago de Rubiás, the nerve center of the old republic, where its inhabitants met to decide relevant issues for the microstate, it has been built since 2008. the statue of Delfín Modesto Brandonhis last judge. Inside the church there is also a replica of the ark that guarded the archive of the old republic, a chest that could only be opened with three keys, one for each “home of agreement“. Their neighbors continue to meet even today in the atrium to celebrate a symbolic act in which they name their honorary judges. In Xataka | When the USSR declared war, Finland decided to protect its roads in a peculiar way: with flying trees In Xataka | There was an advanced civilization high in the Andes that based its dominance on one thing: feces. In Xataka | In 1888 an English doctor dissected a corpse down to its nerves. And illuminated forensic science along the way Images| Wikimedia (map by José de Castro López (1863)), Portasxures and Wikipedia (Fabio Mendes)

The Iberian lynx is reconquering Spain and that is good news. The challenge now is to understand why

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In 2002, there were 94 Iberian lynx confined to two very specific points in Andalusia. It was so obvious that the future of the species was written that no one bothered to read it. And hence the surprises: almost 15 years later, There are 2,401 copies distributed across 17 nuclei breeders in six autonomous communities (and Portugal). But the most interesting thing is not that the Iberian lynx population has grown, what is interesting is that its recovery is so great that it now frequents places where it has not been seen for centuries. This is what has changed and, above all, these are the consequences. Has the situation changed that much? At least on a symbolic level, yes. Of course. In 2014, there was not a single lynx in all of Castilla – La Mancha. Today, 46% of all Spanish individuals of the species they are there and it already exceeds the Andalusian population. That is, what is happening with this feline is much more than a simple story of population growth (also 29% a year since 2020): it is a whole change in the ‘center of gravity’ of the species. And yes, it is good news. In fact, the IUCN removed it from the “endangered” species and put it on the “vulnerable” list. Is the first species to drop two (two!) categories on that list in just 20 years. Did we really not see it coming? The truth is that not only did we see it coming, it is what we were looking for. But, as I said at the beginning, the general journalistic account that has been done at the national level hides all this. In 2019, when the project started LIFE LynxConnectthe idea was precisely that: it is not enough to have many lynxes if those lynxes are controlled in only a couple of places. Recently we were talking about the very delicate situation of the immortelle of Mojácara plant that survives confined to a single beach on the Mediterranean coast. That couldn’t happen with the lynx. Therefore, the idea of ​​authorities and researchers was simple: we needed various nuclei and we needed to connect them to each other. In any case, it is not all our merit. Because, as always, climate change has a lot to do with it. The north of the peninsula is becoming drier and has greater populations of rabbits: this has meant that there are at least two towns (in Cuenca and Palencia) which are completely outside the recent historical distribution of the lynx. And if those two populations are there it is because they can be there now. In fact, experts rule out that the lynx extends to the Cantabrian coast because, simply, there are not an abundance of rabbits. Okay, and what are the consequences of all this? To begin with, the ecological balances to which we are accustomed have changed. In fact, now that rabbits have become a problemmany rural communities are waiting for the arrival of the lynx to put things in place. However, there are also numerous life safety problems (162 accidents in 2024 alone) and challenges for territorial planning. Be that as it may, the lynx is a laboratory now that the reintroduction of species is the order of the day. Also now that they arrive invasive species at a level never seen before. There is much to learn and, I fear, little time to do it. Image | Kenny Goossen | Ian In Xataka | England is experiencing an unprecedented invasion. The problem is that they are octopuses, and they are devouring everything they can find.​

The white Iberian lynx of Jaén seemed like a feat of nature. I was actually just stressed.

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In recent days, a photograph has flooded social networks and headlines. In it you can see an Iberian lynx with white fur that a priori marked a historical moment: the first case of albinism in the Iberian lynx species and precisely in Jaén and that pointed to a genetic anomaly that reduced the pigmentation of the coat without affecting the color of the eyes. But the reality has been very different (and a little disappointing). The importance. A priori, this photograph taken by Ángel Hidalgo marked something historic and could have changed the perception that biologists had of the species. But in the end it was not like that, as specialists have been able to see of the Life Lynx Connect Project: He’s just stressed and got gray hair (the same thing that happens among humans). The context. Ángel Hidalgo, 29, has been using cameras for years phototrapping to document the fauna of the southern peninsula. “When that white figure appeared on the screen, I knew I was looking at something unique. I call it the white ghost of the Mediterranean forest,” he reported on his social networks. His image, accompanied by hashtags such as #linceblanco, went viral in a few hours on social networks. At first, several media outlets pointed to a case of leucism, well documented phenomenon in birds and mammals, but never scientifically confirmed in Iberian lynxes. However, the inspectors and biologists of the Iberian Lynx Recovery Plan quickly came out to clarify the misunderstanding. “The animal exists, the photograph is authentic, but it is not leucism,” explained Javier Salcedo, Andalusian coordinator of the Plan. “This is a temporary alteration in pigmentation that may be related to high levels of stress or an episode of physiological weakness. It is completely reversible and does not pose a risk to the health of the specimen.” When stress dulls the color. The color of mammalian fur depends on the amount and type of melanin synthesized by cells called melanocytes, as occurs in humans. A melanin that is highly controlled by different hormonal pathways that are sensitive to many external factors such as cortisol that can partially block the activity of melanocytes. The problem in this case is that cortisol is known as the stress hormone, and therefore greater stress reduces the activity of these melanocytes. This phenomenon has been described in a wideo range of animals, from laboratory mice to arctic foxes and primates, in published studies in Nature, Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research either Scientific Reports. Even humans experience it: the well-known “grayness due to stress” responds to the same mechanism. In the case of the Iberian lynx, an animal especially sensitive to disturbances in its environment, a prolonged period of tension—due to territorial competition, scarcity of prey or human noise near its breeding areas—is enough to activate these processes. Lessons from a biological mirage. The media commotion also reflects a contemporary phenomenon: how social networks can transform a simple image into scientific news. In this case, misinformation about leucism and albinism spread faster than technical clarifications from experts on X or Instagram. In this way, we are reminded that in conservation science, physiological details matter as much as big numbers. A single lynx that changes its color due to stress can reveal accumulated tensions in an entire ecosystem, but not a very rare mutation in its genetics that causes that curious coat. Cover | Angel Hidalgo In Xataka | The most fearsome animals in the world: when nature is much more dangerous than humans

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