What If Gone

Species → Iberian Lynx

Iberian Lynx

Lynx pardinus

648 mature individuals
Extinction risk Vulnerable
Apex predatorMesopredator releaseMediterranean environmentReintroductionConservation
Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus)
Photo: Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What if it disappeared?

Impact High
In Extremadura

Where the Iberian lynx has disappeared, the red fox and the Egyptian mongoose — its main competitors — proliferate: its local reintroduction cuts their abundance by about 80% and rabbit consumption by the entire carnivore guild by 55.6%. The European rabbit and red-legged partridge, prey shared by the lynx and these mesopredators, recover as soon as the lynx returns.

Documented
Detail

Jiménez et al. 2019, « Restoring apex predators can reduce mesopredator abundances », Biological Conservation, vol. 238, art. 108234 ; confirme le mécanisme déjà décrit par Palomares, Gaona, Ferreras & Delibes 1995, Conservation Biology 9(2):295-305.

The Iberian lynx occasionally kills foxes and mongooses in direct competition for rabbits, and its scent alone changes their foraging behavior. Jiménez et al.'s study compares areas before and after lynx reintroduction in Extremadura using density estimates from camera trapping — a quasi-experimental design, not a simple correlation.

In Andújar

Without the lynx to alter the behavior of frugivorous mesopredators, some fleshy-fruited plants could see their regeneration change — but this link is so far demonstrated only at the level of animal behavior, not yet at the level of plant populations.

Extrapolated
Detail

Extrapolation à partir de Burgos et al. 2022, « Predation risk can modify the foraging behaviour of frugivorous carnivores », Journal of Animal Ecology : dans le Parc naturel de la Sierra de Andújar, les renards vivant en territoire de lynx consommaient 38 % de fruits en moins, et 70 à 100 % des visites de renards et de fouines aux poiriers sauvages avaient lieu hors des territoires de lynx.

Mesocarnivores disperse the seeds of several Mediterranean fleshy-fruited trees by eating them. That the lynx reduces their fruit-foraging activity is measured directly by camera trapping; that this translates into a demonstrable effect on the seedling recruitment of these trees remains, by the authors' own admission, a logical extension yet to be confirmed by longer-term monitoring.

What's missing to confirm it: A multi-year monitoring of actual seedling recruitment (not just mesopredator visitation) in areas with and without the lynx would confirm or refute the effect at the plant population scale.

Documentation

Last verified: August 14, 2026

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