The Iberian lynx is an animal from mammalian family of felines, it is infact the most endangered feline in the entire world and the most endangered carnivore in Europe, with numbers that don’t pass 100 individuals in the wild, and 150 in total.

If this animal becomes extinc it will be the first feline to do so since the extinction of the sabre-toothed cats, which ocurred over 10,000 years ago. Why are they in such danger? – the answer to this question is the answer to most questions involving endangered creatures – Humans.

This Feline once inhabited almost all of the Iberian peninsula and the french Pyrenees. Now they are only found in the south of the Iberian peninsula, mostly in Andalucia, Spain. At the moment we humans are destroying their main habitat: the iberian cork forests. Cork doesn’t have many uses any more and its main use, the lid of a wine bottle, is being replaced with plastic. This has made the farmers that own the cork forests to cut them down and grow something more useful, this is the main reason the Iberian lynx is so endangered. So a way to help these animals could be by encouraging the farmers to keep the forests, by buying wine with a cork lid. Even still this would not make a great deal of diference. Another reason for the endangerement of this species goes back to the 1950’s, when myxomatosis, a disease, killed a great amount of the rabbit population, the Iberian lynx’ main prey. Plus rabbits, in recent times, are beeing heavily hunted illegaly.

Thankfully, there are projects and organizations doing what they can to avoid the extintion of such a beautiful and unique creature. We are also doing what we can: all the money made by the club, merchandise and magazine goes to the Iberian lynx (except for the odd couple of euros that are needed for the cost of material), we are a non-profit organization.

For more information, contact:
catscraze@zaxcraze.com

For more information on the Iberian lynx, take a look at the second edition of the ©CATSCRAZE MAGAZINE.

Panthera Tigris– President of ©Catscraze