14 DAY TRIAL // A 6-year-long investigation has revealed that Iberian lynx in Spain are attacking more farm animals than they used to in the past.
Within said time frame, a total of 716 farm animals got killed by these predators.
Conservationists explain that, although the lynx are not yet causing any noteworthy economic losses, this increase in their number of attacks on farm animals suggests that conflict prevention programs have to be implemented.
More so given the fact that the Iberian lynx is currently listed as an endangered species and conflicts with humans can only threaten its long-term survival.
The areas that such programs must target are the ones inhabited by both these predators and humans.
“Quite possibly, when the lynx was present all over the peninsula, these attacks were common, but as they now have a very limited distribution and, until not so many years ago, they rarely came into contact with domestic animals, we did not see as much conflict.”
“Now that the species is expanding again, it is reaching more inhabited areas,” the researchers who conducted this study reportedly said.