Rare Iberian lynx run over on Costa Almeria highway

A RARE Iberian lynx has been found dead on a road just outside Almeria City and the Cabo de Gata Natural Park, close to the PITA scientific technology park industrial estate.
The feline, a male, appeared to have been run over.
The SERBAL Society for Study and Recovery of Almerian Biodiversity said the lynx was probably the same one which had been spotted in the Guadix and Sierra Nevada regions in recent months.
In a post on social media, the organisation explained it was pretty certain the animal would have been following a ‘natural corridor’ between the Sierra Alhamilla, Tabernas and Cabo de Gata.
This natural corridor is included in the European Union’s Natura 2000 network of core breeding and resting sites for rare and threatened species as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC), SERBAL pointed out, but adding there are ‘strong pressures to build more greenhouse and other infrastructure’ in the zone.
The organisation described the death of the lynx as “very bad news,” which highlighted the importance of SACs.
According to the World Wildlife Fund the Iberian lynx is the planet’s most endangered feline species. The latest census from 2016 put the total number left in Spain at less than 700.