First cubs born in freedom in 2015

As every year, in early March, the Iberian lynx tracking teams intensify the monitoring of radio-marked adult females to detect the first litters of the breeding season.

Taking advantage of the fact that these females have a radio-collar transmission, it is possible to detect reproductive events, burrows create and calving without any discomfort for the species. This is possible through the everyday motoring, at a safe distance.

The indications of the proximity of a delivery occurs when the female is located in question for several consecutive days, most of the time at a fixed point in its territory effecting short exits, returning to the exact same location.

If there is the need to confirm the existence of a recent litter, quickly conduct a site visit, where extreme precautions will be taken, with regard to action times, coinciding with the times when the female leaves the place to hunt.

This tracking tool enabled managers, on occasion, save litters or avoids unnecessary inconvenience, near a place so sensitive to any kind, such as its dens of creation.

In the case of the population of Doñana-Aljarafe, from today have been detected using this methodology, the first two litters of 2015 in the field.

With respect to females who are not radio-marked, we will have to wait for the summer when the cubs begin to follow their mothers and are likely to be photographed.