Projecto LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre

The Lynx Manchas

Hi, I’m Manchas!

I’m an Iberian lynx cub and I live at the Mediterranean woodland, in Southeast Portugal.
The biologists that study my specie call us Lynx pardinus.

My characteristics…
Like domestic cats, I’m also a feline, but bigger! My parents are of the size of a fox, with about 60cm high. It’s very easy to distinguish me from the other animals of my woodland: I have a short tail with black tip, stiff and black hairs that look like a brush in the tip of my ears and long black and white beards that grow with age.

I have a yellowish brown coat with dark spots – that’s why here in the woods everyone calls me Manchas (Portuguese word for Spots)! They allow me an excellent camouflage in the vegetation – it is very difficult for someone to see me.
My spots are like your fingerprints – no other lynx has spots like mine – my coat pattern is unique.

I’m a great hunter! I have a lot of strength in my limbs and paws and I’m very agile… My mother, Pardina, can jump up to several meters high and rarely lets run away the wild rabbits she hunts. Here all the other animals respect my family and there are few other carnivores, like foxes or Egyptian mongooses, which dare to go through our territory.

Where you can find me…
My species only exists in one place in the world – the Iberian Peninsula, which is, Portugal and Spain. Overall, we’re not many in nature… a little more than 300 and we mainly live in Spain, where there are still well preserved forests of holm and cork oaks, with huge scrublands – the Mediterranean habitat.

The threats I face…
We’ve had much better days in Portugal… In the past we existed all over the country, but then many threats appeared and little by little we lost conditions to survive. Our woodlands were widely destroyed to extract wood and grow cereals. Things got worse when two diseases that didn’t exist in Portugal came up and killed many rabbits… we almost ran out of food. Nowadays it’s still difficult to find places with enough rabbits. As if it wasn’t enough, we also have to be very careful not to get hurt in illegal traps that some humans set in the field or when we need to cross roads, not to be run over…

This is why my species is considered to be Critically Endangered – we are facing extinction, which means we can disappear from nature.
But that isn’t going to happen!

With the help of LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre… … the areas of well preserved Mediterranean woodland will increase! They’ve also made us some artificial burrows where we can calmly rest and refuge during the day and they’re creating green pastures so that the families of wild rabbits can increase. Soon I’ll have a good place to live and hunt, and I’ll grow healthy! Me and all the other animals that live in my forest, like the black vulture Bui! Have you already met him? We’re best friends!
Stay tuned and follow our adventures!