“For the first time, one of our tracking cameras—installed with official authorization to monitor brown bears and wolves—has recorded the presence of an Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) in the Pyrenees, near the French border,” the association revealed.
“Until now, there was no documented evidence of the presence of this species in the Pyrenees,” ADLO Pirineo emphasised.
According to the association, “thanks to the coat pattern, it was confirmed that this is the lynx ‘Secreto,'” a four-year-old animal born in captivity at the Silves breeding centre in the Algarve. It was released into the mountains north of the city of Seville, in southern Spain, in the spring of 2022.
To reach the Pyrenees, about seven kilometres from the French border, this lynx had to travel hundreds of kilometres—the straight-line distance between the mountains north of Seville and the area where it was spotted is close to a thousand kilometres.
According to ADLO Pirineo, the animal was recorded by the association’s camera in April, but the footage was only viewed this summer.
‘Secreto’ had already been detected months earlier by forest ranger cameras in Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, but in an area outside the Pyrenees, the association explained in the same statement.
The location in the Pyrenees is likely “one of the highest-altitude Iberian lynx detections in the Iberian Peninsula”—nearly 1,750 meters, in an area home to hares, roe deer, and other animals, said ADLO Pirineo.
For the association, “the detection of the Iberian lynx confirms the Pyrenees as a potential habitat” for the species and “reinforces the urgent need to promote its reintroduction and conservation in regions such as Aragon and Catalonia.”
“Besides being a symbol of biodiversity, the species has historically played a fundamental role as a natural predator of rabbits, which represent about 90% of its diet. This fact offers an ecological and sustainable alternative to the problem of rabbit overpopulation” in several areas, the association argued.
ADLO Pirineo considered it unacceptable that, “in the 21st century,” the use of poisons to control these animals continues to be permitted and even promoted by various authorities.
The Iberian lynx was on the brink of extinction at the beginning of this century and has been the target of successive recovery programs since then.
The number of lynxes in the Iberian Peninsula increased by 19% in 2024, reaching 2,401 animals, according to the latest annual census conducted by the Spanish and Portuguese entities involved in the species recovery project.
The 2024 census identified 1,557 adult lynxes, 470 of which were breeding females.
The leaders and scientists of the LIFE LynxConnect project, which is dedicated to the recovery of the Iberian lynx, believe that to achieve a “favorable conservation status,” it will be necessary to reach between 4,500 and 6,000 individuals, with at least 1,100 breeding females.
Iberian lynx conservation projects, funded primarily by European LIFE programs, have been ongoing for over 20 years, and the total number of animals has increased from less than 100 in 2002 to more than 2,000 in 2023.
In 2024, the species was no longer classified as “endangered” but instead became “vulnerable” on the Red List compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
That year, 2,047 lynxes were identified in Spain and 354 in Portugal, in the Guadiana Valley (up from 291 in the previous census).
In addition to this population in Portugal, there are others in the Spanish regions of Castile-La Mancha (942 lynxes), Andalusia (836), Extremadura (254), and Murcia (15), some of which already have interconnected population centers.
The Iberian lynx recovery and conservation project initially involved breeding animals in captivity, with the first being released into the wild in 2011.
At the National Iberian Lynx Reproduction Center (CNRLI) in Silves, which opened in 2009, 170 animals were born, of which 110 were reintroduced into the wild, according to data from the end of 2024.
The Iberian lynx recovery and conservation project involves several public and private entities in Portugal and Spain.
In Portugal, coordination is carried out by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).