Mosto and Morgana in the Montes de Toledo

The President of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, attended yesterday, March 4, 2016, in the farm 'El Castañar' in Mazarambroz (Toledo), to the of release two Iberian lynx within the framework of the Life+Iberlince Project to continue genetically reinforcing the population of this species in the Montes de Toledo.

The first out of the cage was 'Mosto', a male born in 2015 at the zoo in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) and transferred to the breeding center of El Acebuche (Huelva) for training before releasing, and then 'Morgana' female born in 2015 in the breeding center La Olivilla (Jaen).
The exemplars are carrying a collar with a transmitter for permanent location through GPS tracking. The Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development, Francisco Martínez Arroyo, who accompanied President García-Page in this release, said they know exactly where they are and that "a copy released in Toledo crossed the province of León, now in Galicia, surpassing highways, roads and railways, which shows that there are animals that are able to adapt to this environment as difficult and sometimes hostile, to these animals”. "We have all together to do that the medium is at least possible hostile", he reiterated.

In addition, Martinez Arroyo has held that likely "this year we will have the first offspring in the wild in Castilla-La Mancha, within the lynx reintroduction program. That is the objective of the program, that animals are able to live and reproduce in the wild. If this happens will demonstrate that public funds are well invested."

With this initiative there are now eleven copies that have been released in Castilla-La Mancha and will improve rabbit populations and increase the area of occurrence of the species by natural expansion. The reintroduction of this animal is produced by the positive developments that keep the lynx populations in the natural environment as well as the involvement of local people, farmers and hunting society, when welcoming these felines. It also highlights the essential role of environmental agents and SEPRONA Civil Guard.

The event has generated great excitement among the media and among public school children of the town who have been presented with an oak of a sap by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha.

Life + Iberlince
This action takes place in the framework of the European Life+Iberlince Project for the 'Recovery of the historical range of the Iberian lynx in Spain and Portugal', which aims to avoid the problems caused by inbreeding species, favoring their settlement in the area.

Nowadays, they have been selected and prepared two optimal for the reintroduction of the species in Castilla-La Mancha areas: Sierra Morena-Campo de Calatrava (Ciudad Real) and Montes de Toledo (Toledo). In both areas the partners of Life Iberlince in Castilla-La Mancha develop various technical work aimed at determining abundance of rabbits and quality of habitat for the Iberian lynx and have made a huge effort of communication and dissemination of the project among the affected population highlighting meetings with different groups. It has also launched a traveling exhibition about the project that will cover the surrounding municipalities.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development of Castilla-La Mancha participates as associated beneficiary along with 17 other entities in a project whose coordinating partner to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment of the Junta de Andalucía.