It has been a bad year for the critically endangered Iberian Lynx, the worst for two decades with 28 of these cats being killed.
Of those that are known to have died in 2014, some 21 were run over, 6 were beaten to death, shot or poisoned, and one died of unknown causes. It is the highest number of fatalities in a single year since 1994, and when you consider that there are now only about 300 in the wild, almost all in a small area of Andalucia, it is a hefty loss.
As if being hunted – which is illegal as it is a highly protected species – wasn’t enough, the main diet of the Iberian Lynx, the rabbit, has declined in numbers by 75% due to disease.