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Earth

Hidden populations give lynx a fighting chance

30 July 2008

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The world’s rarest cat may yet avoid extinction – by a whisker. Around 200 Iberian lynx were thought to survive in just two locations in southern Spain. Now a small number of cats have been discovered living in pockets of forest across the country’s centre, and these animals may help save the species.

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) once lived across the Iberian Peninsula, but trapping, loss of habitat and a crash in the numbers of its main prey, rabbit, have devastated its population. Two separate populations of around 50 and 150 survive within Andalusia.

If the Iberian lynx were to…

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