Starting this month, the Rewilding Portugal team are coordinating cross-border, multi-partner efforts to enhance the recovery of Iberian lynx and Iberian wolf populations south of the Douro River.

Rewilding Europe is very excited to announce that Liberty Wildlife Fund, a private foundation in The Netherlands, has decided to support Rewilding Europe for a period of three years.

The Iberian lynx conservation efforts are giving very good results this year. 60 cubs were born in five breeding facilities in Spain and Portugal this spring, and 44 are still alive. This is the highest number of gestated pups from the beginning of the ex-situ breeding program and gives a total of 115 cubs since 2005.

Since a few years, I was hearing stories from friends that it was fairly easy to see Iberian lynx in the wild. I thought this was quite remarkable for such a rare and elusive cat, however with a couple of friends we decided to try our luck in February this year, a time of year when the species is very active and territorial.

Rewilding Europe has started with the design of a Wildlife Recovery Programme, focusing on large herbivores to start with. A working group of dedicated specialists, Rewilding Europe’s Wildlife Team, has prepared an overview of all the wildlife restocking and reintroduction plans that we have developed for the five projects. Four species were selected to focus on: European bison, European wild horse, Aurochs and kulan.