The story of a happy birth

The finding that the first lynx in Montes de Toledo after the disappearance of the species, as a result of the project Life+Iberlince was a milestone in the conservation of this globally threatened species.

This happy story begins with the birth of the Keres female lynx in the 2013’s spring at the breeding centre of Granadilla, daughter of Farfara and Galeno.

After her upbringing and training in the breeding centre, it was selected to be released in the area of reintroduction of Montes de Toledo and marked with a GPS collar where it was initially released in fencing “presuelta” in El Castañar in January 2015, where it remained until April of that year, when it was finally released.

After its release, this issue made a series of exploratory movements throughout the reintroduction area, and even starred in a shift to the south by the river corridor miracle that led up to the limit of the province of Ciudad Real, which made me think the monitoring team if travellers follow the steps of the lynxes Kentaro and Kahn.

However, suddenly it changed course, it retraced its steps and a few days later settled in an area adjacent to the area of loose, which definitively establish their territory in mid-July 2015 and where it has remained to date.

The territory of Keres, something larger than 5 square kilometres, is situated next to the territory of another territorial female Kuna, and overlaps with Kendo, male from the breeding centre of Silves (Portugal) and released in late 2014 and lately fathers the puppies.

With the onset of heat of the species the possibility to reproduce this issue was valued as highly as possible.

The GPS collar positions indicated that since March Keres first appeared to be installed in a dense thicket of a stream, where it remained long and from where departed and returned daily in its hunting expeditions.

At the same time reviewing camera traps it showed obvious signs of Keres’ pregnancy, while only a few days later, to March 5, and appeared much thinner.

Everything was fitting perfectly, Keres could have given birth in the thicket by that time, however given the caution with which the monitoring of the lynx is done, not done in no time attempt to see the den, because he recommended was waiting for puppies They made their first outings to confirm the news.

On the first half of April, a fact alerted the monitoring team, the GPS positions showed Keres who had left its shelter of the bush and not returned to it, which led to wonder if it could have lost offspring.

Fortunately, it was soon found that the GPS positions have now focused on a next “berrocales”, possibly because the careful mother, coinciding with heavy rains in April, the puppies had decided to move to a safer position.

The new provision of catnip offered the possibility of using a telescope and a considerable distance could safely observe the young, and given the possible date of delivery, on first days of March, these should be making their first trips in the around the cave.

In this way and after a tense patient observation, on the 27th it was observed four cubs frolicking carefree among the stones.

The cubs’ search is a great incentive for the entire team to be involved in the project and in the upcoming weeks they will continue to carry out the follow-up of the species, with special attention to all females this year may have completed successfully the breeding period in the two zones reintroduction in Castilla-La Mancha, Montes de Toledo and Sierra Morena oriental in Ciudad Real.

The birth of the first offspring represents a milestone in the recovery of the Iberian lynx in the region and represents another milestone achieved by the Life+Iberlince project, which has as its ultimate goal the recovery of the historical range of the Iberian lynx in Spain and Portugal.