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Iberian Lynx

Lynx pardinus · hard

The Iberian lynx came closer to extinction than almost any other cat. By the early 2000s fewer than a hundred survived in two isolated pockets of southern Spain, and the species was widely expected to become the first cat lost in modern times.

Its problem was specialisation. Rabbits make up the overwhelming majority of its diet, and twentieth-century Europe saw rabbit populations collapse twice, first from myxomatosis and then from a viral haemorrhagic disease. A predator that eats little else could not simply switch.

The recovery has been one of conservation's clearest successes, and it was unglamorous work: captive breeding, restoring rabbit populations before releasing any cats, negotiating with landowners, and building tunnels and fencing along roads, since vehicle strikes remain the largest single cause of death. Numbers have since climbed into the thousands and the species has been downlisted twice.

The animal itself is smaller and more lightly built than the Eurasian lynx, with a spotted coat, pronounced ear tufts and a distinctive ruff of fur around the face. It hunts in Mediterranean scrub and open cork oak woodland, habitat that itself depends on traditional land management to persist.

Where it lives

Worml lists the iberian lynx as native to 2 countries — Portugal and Spain. Its habitat is mediterranean scrubland and open cork oak woodland.

Ranges here are reduced to whole countries for playability and exclude introduced populations — see about the data for what that simplification leaves out.

In the game

Iberian Lynx is rated hard. To solve the round you need to find all 2 of its listed countries. How scoring works →

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