The lynx effect

Europe’s only big cat may soon become the first mammal known to have been driven to extinction by disease. In March, three Iberian lynxes were found dead in Donana National Park in southern Spain, where fewer than 25 lynx live. Eduardo Goncalves of the conservation group SOS Lynx in Lisbon says cattle grazing in the park probably infected the animals with bovine tuberculosis. In the past 18 months, the only other sizeable lynx population in Spain has disappeared, while a new dam is flooding the main lynx habitat in Portugal.