A female Iberian lynx named Salema was released yesterday, 17 February, on the El Cotillo and Navas Lanas estates, located in the municipality of Córdoba, in the Guadalmellato Valley reintroduction area (Córdoba).

Coming from the captive breeding centre of La Olivilla, it is the offspring of the female Janes and the male Nimbus and was born in March 2021. In May, Janes, who was raising three cubs, including Salema, died suddenly, posing the challenge of ensuring that these 68-day-old cubs, which due to their genetics were almost certainly destined for reintroduction, could acquire and develop all the natural behaviours of their species. But luckily Cynara, a 15-year-old female who had lost her gestation, adopted the three cubs, establishing such a bond with them that, despite their age, she even allowed them to suckle. This bond has remained very strong throughout their development, both between the three sisters and between them and their adoptive mother. Tomorrow Salema has been released into the field, in the Guadalmellato reintroduction area, with the usual necessary behaviours but with very special experiences.

Salema has been genetically selected in order to enrich the genetic variability in this area, and has joined the existing Iberian lynx population in the Guadalmellato.

The choice of the Guadalmellato Valley for the reintroduction is no coincidence, as this area was chosen for its habitat quality, high rabbit densities and strong social support for the reintroduction, including the collaboration of private landowners and hunting societies that manage land where the lynx population is concentrated.

The first reintroductions of Iberian lynx in Andalusia began in 2009, in the Guadalmellato Valley area, and since then a total of 54 specimens of Lynx pardinus have been released in this area between now and 2021.

Once the population has been consolidated in the different reintroduction areas thanks to the release of specimens, the future must be focused on continuing to consolidate the new nuclei until they reach a sufficient size, while continuing to promote the expansion and growth of the species in new areas. It will be necessary to ensure that all populations are connected to each other, so that there is an exchange of specimens that ensures their long-term genetic viability. In order to improve connectivity, it will be necessary to work on the permeabilisation of infrastructures, and also to conserve and improve the habitat, above all, guaranteeing the presence of its main prey, the rabbit.

Currently, the CAGPyDS of the Junta de Andalucía, responding to all these challenges, has several ongoing projects, such as LIFE LYNXCONNECT, coordinated by Andalucía, whose main objective is to increase both the overall population size and connectivity between Iberian Lynx core populations to ensure a self-sustainable and viable functional metapopulation, in addition to ensuring the availability of prey (number of rabbits) and avoiding unnatural mortality, favouring mobility, minimising the risk of being run over, and strengthening social support to avoid accidents derived from the illegal persecution of the species. In this line, the Regional Ministry is also involved in two other Life Projects, SAFE-CRISSING and IBERCONEJO. The first includes a series of actions aimed at preventing wildlife being run over on asphalted roads, while the second is an Iberian-wide project focused on improving knowledge of the wild rabbit, carrying out an Iberian census, and promoting initiatives for improvement and prevention.

In addition, work is being carried out to improve the habitat of wild rabbits in different areas of Andalusia, including the Guadalmellato Valley, and in the development of dissemination actions so that the populations where the Iberian lynx is present are aware of the species, its habitat and biology, the main threats that condition its future, and the benefits that the Iberian lynx brings to a territory in order to make them participants in its conservation.