By the early 21st century, Spain’s once-abundant lynx population was on the brink of extinction, decimated by a combination of habitat loss, declines in their primary prey, hunting and road accidents.
After decades of conservation work, the Iberian lynx has made a remarkable recovery, and a new initiative is using a high-tech system to protect the wild cat from one of its deadliest enemies: road traffic.
“In 2001, there were fewer than 50 mature individuals in the wild, distributed across two populations,” explains Urs Breitenmoser, a carnivore ecologist and former senior scientist at the University of Bern, who co-chairs the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Cat Specialist Group.
By 2022, that number had risen to 648, according to the IUCN, and the population of young and mature lynx is now estimated to be over 2,000.
The turnaround is the result of a €100 million (£100 million) conservation project — funded by the EU and the Spanish government — that involved conservation groups as well as national and regional authorities across southern Spain.
Conservation strategies such as boosting populations of its main prey, rabbits, and restoring habitats, for example by converting pine plantations back to their original scrubland, have paid off, and in June this year the IUCN upgraded the Iberian lynx’s status from endangered to vulnerable. “For a relatively large carnivore, that’s an incredible speed of recovery,” says Breitenmoser.
Sound and light
However, the IUCN acknowledges that the Iberian lynx remains under threat. It relies heavily on wild rabbits for food, which are particularly vulnerable to viruses. Poaching remains a threat, as does climate change, which is affecting lynx habitats, and road safety remains an issue.
To aid dispersal, lynxes have territories as large as 20 square kilometers — though this can vary greatly — which Breitenmoser describes as “a clever trick of nature to avoid inbreeding.” But the ability to move freely often requires crossing busy roads.
In the 1980s, roadkill played a crucial role in lynx mortality in the Doñana area (a national park in Andalusia prominent for the Iberian lynx), accounting for nearly 17% of deaths. To address this problem, in the early 2000s, conservation programs introduced safety measures by installing fences and underpasses that provide a safe way for lynx to move between habitats without having to cross roads.
Between 2006 and 2011, roadkill accounted for 6.6 percent of deaths in Sierra Morena, also in Andalusia, and 8.6 percent in Doñana. That may not sound like much, but Breitenmoser explains that given that lynx populations were critically endangered at the time, the impact was significant.
“Twenty years ago, every single roadkill was a real catastrophe. Even if you say that one or two lynxes are not important, in this situation, every single individual was important,” says Breitenmoser.
Even as the species recovers, preventing roadkill is a priority, and a project led by the regional government of Andalusia is using “virtual fences” to protect lynxes from traffic. Sensors are placed every 50 meters along main roads, detecting when an animal is nearby and alerting them when cars approach, explains Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, coordinator of the LIFE Lynx-Connect project.
“The sensors are also activated when they detect car headlights, warning animals with sound and light signals not to cross,” he says.
In the Andalusian city of Jaén, 4.5 kilometers of virtual fencing were installed along a main road in 2022, and in Granada, physical and virtual fencing is being installed along a 20-kilometer stretch.
The project is also having an impact on drivers, who often slow down when the audible and visual alarms are triggered. “We definitely noticed a reduction in drivers’ speed when the device is activated,” says Marcos López-Parra, who works as a lynx recovery plan technician for the Andalusian regional government. “We are reducing the risk of collisions.”
Similar technologies are being used in central Italy to protect the Marsican brown bear from road traffic, with the addition of infrared sensors and thermal cameras to detect the presence of animals at the side of roads, before sending an audible warning to drivers to slow down. The organisation behind the initiative claims it has been almost 100% effective.
Ortiz says that over a five-year period, almost 4.5 million euros (about R$28 million) will be spent on improving habitats and almost 2.9 million euros (about R$18 million) on increasing connectivity, including virtual fences.
The hope is that helping lynxes cross roads safely will increase encounters between different populations, which could benefit cats in Andalusia, the Extremadura region and even Portugal. Breitenmoser says connectivity between neighboring populations is essential to maintaining “the genetic and demographic health of a large population.”
There are some even more inventive technologies in development. Scientists at the University of Cordoba in Spain are harnessing the chemical signals used by lynxes during mating season to create artificial scent trails that could connect different populations via underground passages.
The first year of the project focused on conducting analyses at the molecular level, and the researchers are now experimenting in the field. The final task will be to create a scent corridor and see if cats follow it. The study is expected to be completed by September 2025.
“It’s still in its early stages, but it’s an interesting alternative because it could be cheaper than what’s typically been done on highways and could help lynxes cross safely under roads,” says Ortiz.
Conservationists say efforts to help the lynx will benefit other wildlife species in the region. “It plays a very important ecological role by influencing many other species, not only the rabbit population it feeds on, but also mesopredators like foxes,” Breitenmoser explains.
“It may provide some services to other large carnivores, such as the imperial eagle,” which also depends on wild rabbit populations for survival, he adds.
Innovation aside, for Ortiz, the future of the Iberian lynx depends on cooperation. “The success of a project is defined by the ability to build something through the sum of many parts,” he says. “We need to involve all types of sectors, including hunters, landowners, conservationists and others.”
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This content was originally published in Lynxes could be saved from extinction in Spain by virtual fences; find out on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
