The dispersal of young lynx, mostly males, before stabilising territories with adequate food and conspecifics is a common phenomenon, and other cases of long-distance movements between the two countries have been confirmed, notably of the Caribou lynx in 2010, Mushroom in 2013, Kahn and Kentaro in 2015 and Lithium in 2016.

The information obtained from these movements confirms that the LIFE LYNXCONNECT strategy is both realistic and feasible. The knowledge of these dispersal data, on the other hand, will help the project team to design new areas to enhance this connectivity. In addition to maximising the results and making profitable the investments focused on habitat improvements and defragmentation, carried out with the aim of connecting the populations.

Troncho was released in one of the new reintroduction areas selected in LYNXCONNECT, Sierra Arana (Granada) last year 2023. Coming from captivity, he was wearing a GPS collar that has provided very complete information on his movements.

It remained for the first few days in the surroundings of the release area, roaming during the first week in an area close to the release point, but it soon began a dispersive movement towards the southeast, moving away from the release area until it reached an area close to Fiñana in Almería, from where it moved a few days later to the Sierra de Gador.

He spent almost a year in the Sierra de Gador and its surroundings, where he explored the area almost in its entirety, locating the frequency of the necklace near Aguadulce and Almería capital, where he explored almost 10,000 hectares.

From there he moved towards the east, establishing a sort of corridor in which he reached the vicinity of Carboneras and Mojacar, leaving Andalusia via Puerto Lumbreras and entering the Region of Murcia, arriving in the vicinity of the capital.
In the following weeks it continued its journey through Murcia, moving to Sierra Espuña and from here, in its transit through this community, the collar placed it near Calasparra, to later, after more than a year of travelling, find it in the new reintroduction area of Castilla la Mancha, “Campos de Hellin”.

The close and fluid coordination between the partners of the LIFE LYNXCONNECT project in Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha, and the access to the visualisation of the gps collar platform by all of them, has allowed the control and monitoring of “Troncho”, as well as the collaboration with the technicians and environmental agents of these communities.

Thanks to the information provided by the GPS collars worn by the specimens and the exhaustive monitoring of this specimen at all times. The data obtained shows, among other things, that some specimens of Iberian lynx are capable of travelling more than 25 kilometres in a single day, which proves that the connection between the current reintroduction areas is possible. They are also able to survive, alternating their movements between areas with different densities of wild rabbits. This last circumstance can be considered exceptional, and although it is clear that in some of these areas a lynx can survive the scarcity of rabbits, it is also clear that it would not be possible to maintain stable and reproductive populations of the species in these areas.

Another noteworthy fact has been the cooperation shown by most of the farms, both those with LYNXCONNECT collaboration agreements, located within the reintroduction areas and most frequented by the lynx that have moved around the least, and those farms located outside the release areas, through which the lynx that have made the most significant dispersal movements have passed.