But this is good news!
The Iberian lynx population in Portugal is now expanding naturally so fast that there is no need for an artificial boost.
According to the 2022 census figures from the ICNF there are now 31 breeding females in Portugal, and these are increasing the populations, dispersing and thus expanding from the original release sites in the Alentejo and the Algarve regions of Portugal.
More information:
“In Portugal, the “Iberian lynx population census of the Guadiana Valley” for the year 2022 confirmed the existence of more than 30 breeding females in the reconstituted Iberian lynx population from 2015, installed in the Guadiana Valley and, since 2019, also in the eastern Algarve”, according to the ICNF.
“Currently, the 31 breeding females confirmed in the national territory are ensuring the sustainability of this population in Portugal, so that to keep growing it no longer depends on the annual release of several specimens born in captivity.”
Portuguese lynx have also just been confirmed as present in a region of central Portugal where they haven’t been present for 30 years.
A known female Iberian lynx has been confirmed via camera trap in Castelo Branco, proving the rumours of sightings in this area. This is the first confirmed presence of the species after a gap of some 30 years. Interestingly, the long-distance traveller, Maguilla was originally born in Portugal.
Maguilla has been ‘captured’ on video camera by the national agency for Forests and the Environment (ICNF), she is a female Iberian lynx that was born at the National Center for the Reproduction of the Iberian Lynx (CNRLI) in Silves, in 2015. She was released in the wild in Matachel, Extremadura, Spain, in 2016, researchers had long since lost track of her after her radio collar stopped sending signals in 2017. Iberian lynx have not been present in Castelo Branco for the last 30 years.
More information (in Portuguese)
SOS LYNX 
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