The first Iberian lynx infected by the pseudorabies virus

February 22, 2017

Matojo, the nine-month-old Iberian lynx cub found dead in 2015 in Extremadura, did not die from natural causes. His necropsy shows that it was the pseudorabies virus that triggered his sudden demise. Before this case, contagion of this infectious disease was only known in one wild cat in the world, a Florida panther.

On 1 December 2015, Matojo, a male Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) cub, was found dead in an expanse of pastures and low scrubland. He was a descendent of Kakapo and Kun and belonged to one of the first litters born free in Extremadura after the Iberian lynx was reintroduced into the region through the Life+Iberlince project (www.iberlince.eu/index.php/esp/).

Initially, the facts indicated that his death might have been the result of natural causes. However, a study that has recently come out in the journal 'BMC Veterinary Research' (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5217549/), led by the University of Extremadura and the Local Government of Extremadura's Environmental Department, sheds light on the reasons behind his death: the pseudorabies virus (PRV) killed him.

As Javier Masot, a researcher at the university and main author of the study, tells SINC (http://www.agenciasinc.es/en/News/The-first-Iberian-lynx-infected-by-the-pseudorabies-virus): "This is the first case described of an Iberian lynx being infected by PRV, or Aujeszky's disease, and the second in any wild cat. Only one other case has been described in 1994 in a Florida panther. After the analyses carried out, it was determined that this was a wild strain."

The study is the first ever evidence that PRV can have a negative impact on the survival of wild Iberian lynxes under threat of extinction.

The animal appeared in an area called Hornachos-Valle del Matachel in the southwest of Badajoz. It was a male born free to a healthy three-year-old female. Using camera-trap photos, it is estimated that Matojo's date of birth was between the 8th and 12th of March 2015. He died at nine months of age.

"In carnivores, and cats in particular, the virus incubation period is short, between two and four days. The infection causes acute encephalitis and the result is invariably fatal, leading to death between 12 and 48 hours after the clinical signs appear," explains Masot.

It is likely that the infection originates in a wild boar, which is a natural reservoir of the virus and transmits the infection to wild carnivore species. "Indices of seropositivity of 69.70 percent and lung infections with PRV of 11.30 percent have recently been described in wild boar populations of southwest Spain using the test called ELISA," the scientist continues.

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Scientists sequence the genome of the Iberian lynx, the most endangered feline

Date: December 14, 2016

Source: Centre for Genomic Regulation

Spanish scientists have sequenced the genome of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), currently one of the world's most endangered felines. They have confirmed the "extreme erosion" suffered by its DNA. The Iberian lynx has one of the least genetically-diverse genomes. It is even less diverse than other endangered mammals, such as the cheetah or Tasmanian devil, or birds, like the crested ibis or osprey.

The study, being published in the scientific journal Genome Biology, has been coordinated by scientists from the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC). The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) contributed to this research project from the very beginning including several groups and facilities. In particular, the laboratories of Roderic Guigó, Cedric Notredame and Toni Gabaldón at the Bioinformatics and Genomics Programme as well as the CRG Bioinformatics unit. This is the first mammal genome of reference generated entirely in Spain.

The project, financed by Banco Santander and managed by the Fundación General CSIC, has integrated the efforts of 50 scientists from research groups of 12 institutions, two of them from outside Spain, that cover a broad range of disciplines, including bioinformatics, genomics, oncology, evolution and conservation.

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Meet the first Iberian lynx on the Iberian Peninsula

Date: October 28, 2015

Source: FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

The remains of an Iberian lynx specimen which lived 1.6 million years ago -- the oldest ever discovered -- were found resting in a cave in Barcelona (Spain). This discovery not only allows us to shed light on the origins of one of the world's most endangered feline species, but it also means that the emergence of this species on the Iberian Peninsula dates back half a million years earlier than what was originally believed.

This newly discovered specimen was 10 to 20 centimetres larger and around 10 kilograms heavier than the Iberian lynx that currently inhabits Doñana National Park in Spain. Its coat was also longer than it is today in order to withstand continuous near-freezing temperatures. This description of the feline was formulated after a study was carried out on one of the first Iberian lynxes that ever lived in Spain.

Part of a cranial fossil belonging to an Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) was uncovered among the horse, goat, deer, woolly mammoth, fox and wolf bones preserved in the Avenc Marcel Cave located in the Garraf massif of Barcelona. This is the oldest Iberian lynx that has been found on the Iberian Peninsula to date and it was discovered by the scientist Manel Llenas in 2003.

The fossil remains of this feline are proof of its presence on the Iberian Peninsula as early as 1.6 to 1.7 million years ago. Up until now scientists had dated the appearance of the Iberian lynx to between 1 and 1.1 million years ago. Thus, this discovery means that the emergence of this feline on the Iberian Peninsula actually dates back 500,000 years earlier than what scientists originally thought.

Readon …

Iberian lynx returns to Spain from verge of extinction

An intense conservation campaign has brought the Iberian lynx back to the south of Spain from the verge of extinction barely 10 years ago, Guy Hedgecoe reports from Spain.

At the La Olivilla lynx breeding centre in Santa Elena, in southern Spain, a group of conservationists are in an office, gathered around a TV monitor.

On it they watch an Iberian lynx cub learn to hunt by playing with a domestic rabbit in one of the centre's compounds. The lynx, the size of a small cat, is only a few weeks old but already has the sharply pointed ears and mottled fur that make the species so recognisable.

It swipes playfully at the rabbit with its paws, but still has a long way to go before it graduates to killing its own prey.

When it does, it will probably be released into the wild, following in the tracks of many other animals born in captivity here.

Just over a decade ago, the Iberian lynx, also known as Lynx pardinus, was on the verge of extinction, with only 90 animals registered, in the Andujar and Donana areas of southern Spain.

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Saving the Iberian lynx from extinction, one cat at a time

Paul Ames, GlobalPost1:06 p.m. EDT June 2, 2015

SILVES, Portugal — The world's most endangered cat? If you're guessing tiger or snow leopard, think again. The Iberian lynx is officially the feline at greatest risk of extinction.

Decades of habitat destruction, hunting and rabbit epidemics that wiped out food supplies mean there are barely 350 still alive in the shrinking wildernesses of Spain and Portugal.

The World Wildlife Fund has long warned these elegant, bobcat-sized creatures could become the first cat species to disappear in at least 2,000 years.

Help, however, is at hand.

In a high-security compound, hidden deep in the hills above this medieval town in southern Portugal, a dedicated band of humans is helping the lynx make a comeback.

"We've had 11 cubs this year," animal behavior specialist Andreia Grancho said. "They are at the stage where they play a lot and are learning to hunt."

On cue, a tufty-eared bundle of cuteness appears on one of six computer screens monitored 24-7 by Grancho and her team of colleagues at Portugal's Iberian Lynx Breeding Center.

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Iberian lynx cubs born in the wild bring hope for the world's most endangered feline species

Sunday 03 May 2015

Conservation groups have hailed the birth of two Iberian lynx cubs as a breakthrough in a costly project to save a species that many fear could become the first feline mammal to die out for 2,000 years.

The births are believed to be the first in the wild for decades outside Andalusia, where the partly EU-financed project to save the species was launched 12 years ago, after its numbers had fallen to fewer than 100 in the wild.

It is now believed that there are at least 300, a significant improvement on previous estimates, but still so few that the Iberian lynx remains a threatened species. The fact that at least one pair has now bred in the vicinity of Badajoz, in western Spain, suggests that the animal may now be re-establishing itself across a wider area.

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A new variant of the rabbit hemorrhagic disease endangers the Iberian lynx

Date:

February 11, 2015

Source:

Plataforma SINC

Summary:

A new study demonstrates the effects that a new variant of the hemorrhagic disease virus RHDV has on wild rabbits on the Iberian Peninsula. The virus threatens the survival of its predator, the Iberian lynx. Scientists have identified a new variant of the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) throughout the entire Iberian Peninsula, including the areas where the Iberian lynx lives, such as the Sierra Morena mountains.

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The Eurasian lynx as a key to the conservation and future viability of the endangered Iberian lynx

Date:

March 5, 2014

Source:

Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB)

Summary:

Understanding the mechanisms which control reproduction in lynx is essential for their continued viability and effective conservation. Scientists discovered that the Corpus luteum of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) has the longest lifespan among mammals known to date. This hormone producing tissue is responsible for restricting this lynx species (and presumably the other lynx species as well) to only having one estrous cycle per year (mono-estrous) and therefore only one opportunity per year to become pregnant.

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Current Efforts Will Not Save the World's Most Endangered Cat

July 21, 2013 — Almost 100 million euros has been spent so far on conservation efforts for the last 250 remaining Iberian lynxes in the wild. But the charismatic species is likely to go extinct within 50 years because the current management plans do not account for the effects of climate change. If they did, the population might increase instead concludes a new international study with participation from the Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen. The study highlights the importance of integrating climate models in management plans for biodiversity.

"Our models show that the anticipated climate change will lead to a rapid and dramatic decline of the Iberian lynx and probably eradicate the species within 50 years, in spite of the present-day conservation efforts. The only two populations currently present, will not be able to spread out or adapt to the changes in time," explains Miguel Araújo, a researcher with the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, and with the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen.

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Two lynx released in Coto Donana to increase genetic diversity

Spanish Lynx Project

July 2013. In an effort to increase the genetic variability of the population of Iberian lynx in Coto Doñana National Park, LIFE-Lynx have been running a series of carefully planned relocations of lynx from other areas. 

Since 2007, four lynx from the Sierra Morena have been released in Doñana, two of whom have subsequently reproduced and so introduced their genes into the Donana population. This has restored some genetic diversity that had been lost to the in the twentieth century. 

On July 1 2013, two more Lynx were released as part of within this program; in this case the two lynx were again from the Sierra Morena , though these two have been part of the captive breeding program. These animals, known as Jabalcuz and Jarena, (male and female respectively), were born and raised in the breeding centre in La Olivilla, which opened in 2006. The two lynx are currently sharing pre-release training and acclimatisation, in an attempt to create a bond between, and so far the indications are that the interactions between them have been very positive.

3 deaths

However, in the last couple of months, at least 3 lynx have died, two of which were hit by cars. A 4 year old male was found by the side of a road between the villages of Hinojos and Villamanrique de la Condesa to the south-west of Seville. 

Read on

Iberian Lynx Attacks On Farm Animals Are On the Rise

June 11, 2013 — Scientists working on the LIFE IBERLINCE project have spent six years studying the hunting behaviour of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), registering a total of 40 attacks with 716 farm animals killed. Their results indicate that, although the resulting economic losses are not high, this behaviour is on the rise, and it is therefore necessary to establish conflict prevention programmes alongside the existing conservation programmes.

Most studies on depredation of livestock in Spain have focused on wolves and little attention has been given to this type of conflict in smaller species.

Within the LIFE IBERLINCE project, "Conservation and reintroduction of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) in Andalusia," a team of scientists has spent six years monitoring lynxes' hunting habits in areas with nearby settlement. In the eight years since this initiative began, the number of lynxes in Spain has trebled.

"We have counted a total of 40 attacks on farm animals, involving 716 kills, in the area of Andújar-Cardeña, one of the hubs -- along with Doñana -- in which members of this species in danger of extinction are centred," explains German Garrote, co-author of the study and researcher on this project.

Although the majority of these attacks (78%) were carried out against poultry, sheep depredation resulted in higher economic losses."

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For the First Time Iberian Lynx Embryos Are Collected and Preserved

Mar. 22, 2013 — A pioneering procedure in felines allows the collection of biological material from Iberian lynx females before castration. The preserved biological material of the lynxes will be used in future conservation breeding programmes.

In February two Iberian lynx females who belong to the Iberian lynx Conservation Breeding Program (ILCBPS) were castrated in order to guarantee a better quality of life and prevent possible health problems.

Scientist from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research IZW, Berlin, Germany, went to the breeding centers in Spain and Portugal to obtain embryos by flushing the oviducts and freeze ovarian tissue immediately after surgery. The obtained embryos and ovarian pieces are stored in liquid nitrogen. Now they are kept at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de Madrid (CSIC) for further usage in the breeding programme.

The specialists of the IZW performed a pioneering procedure to obtain and freeze embryos in a wildlife species. Based on their experience in the domestic cat, they developed a method for cryopreserving oocytes and embryos of wild cat species. "Seven days after mating we expected to flush embryos from the uterus. In both cases, however, oocytes and embryos were still within the oviducts. Thus, the embryo development in lynxes is slower than in domestic cats," says Prof Katarina Jewgenow from the IZW specialist team.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130322090751.htm

Iberian lynx returns to the wild in Spain

By Rebecca Morelle

Excitement ripples through the crowd that has gathered to catch a rare glimpse of the world'smost endangered cat.
With its lustrous, spotted coat, kohl-rimmed eyes and tufted ears, the Iberian lynx wouldnot look out of place in Africa or Asia. But this is Europe's big cat.

And the lynx that dozens of people have come out to see today could be the key to savingthis species.

The cat was once widespread across Spain and Portugal. But in 2005, its numbers plummetedto just 150, earning it the unenviable title of being the most threatened of the world's 36wild cat species.

One of the key factors in this animal's catastrophic decline was the loss of its main foodsource: rabbits, which were wiped out by disease.

Habitat destruction has also been a major problem for the lynx.

The situation was so desperate that conservationists in Spain were forced to take radicalaction: removing some of the cats from the wild and putting them into captivity to breed,in an attempt to boost numbers.

Miguel Simon, director of the Lynx Life project, said: "The situation was really dramatic:there were only two populations left in the wild.

"In order to preserve this species, we had to create a captive population in case the wildpopulation became extinct."


Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17297897

Iberian lynx 'not doomed' by low genetic diversity

One of the world's most endangered cats, the Iberian lynx, may not be doomed by its tiny population size.

About 250 are thought to exist in the wild, putting the species at risk of low genetic diversity and inbreeding.

But new research suggests that the lynx has had little genetic variability over the last 50,000 years, and this has not hampered its long-term survival.

The study is published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

The authors say that the findings should offer hope to conservationists who are trying to pull this critically endangered cat back from the brink of extinction.

Love Dalen, from the Swedish Museum of Natural History, said: "This indicates that some species can do fairly well at low population sizes, even for a very long period of time."

The Iberian lynx was once widespread across the Iberian Peninsula, but hunting, habitat destruction and a disease that nearly wiped out its main source of food - rabbits - contributed to its crash in numbers.

From the 1960s its numbers plummeted, dropping from an estimated 3,000 to approximately 150 in 2005. The lynx is now only found in two isolated pockets in the south of Spain.

Conservationists, such as the Lynx Life team, who have been successful in boosting lynx numbers through captive-breeding programmes and efforts to increase rabbit populations, are concerned about low genetic diversity in the cats and the problems this could cause.

To study this further, a team from Spain, the UK and Sweden, looked at the mitochondrial DNA - a part of the genome that is usually extremely variable - of several lynx, and found that there was, as expected, little genetic variation.

But when they compared this with mitochondrial DNA from lynx fossils spanning the last 50,000 years, they found that there was hardly any variation between the ancient specimens and in the modern-day animals.

Professor Mark Thomas, an author of the paper from University College London, said: "This is the first species, as far as I am aware, where such low diversity has been seen recently and over such a long period of time."

Usually, he said, animals alive today that have a low genetic diversity had a much higher level of genetic variability thousands of years ago.

He explained: "It takes a while for a bottleneck to get rid of genetic variations.

"So usually, when people see low variations today, they say that's probably because of big events in recent evolutionary history, in the last 10,000 in particular, where the climate got much warmer after the Ice Age, humans became more and more dominant because of farming etc.

"That reduced these populations and therefore squashed out the genetic diversity."

However, the Iberian lynx was different, and its consistently low genetic diversity suggested that it had always had a small, long-term population size, Professor Thomas added.

Coping mechanism
The researchers are not sure exactly how the Iberian lynx has managed to survive with this over thousands of years, while other animals have not.

Dr Dalen, also an author of the paper, said: "This type of low diversity has not really been observed in any other species.

"From a conservation point of view this is very interesting."

Usually, he said, this would lead to inbreeding and a reduced potential to adapt to changes in the environment.

But, he added: "There is a difference between being inbred and suffering from it.

"It seems highly likely that the lynx are inbred. In most cases, it seems, that inbreeding leads to a decreases in fitness - genetic problems such as deformities, or lower litter sizes. But there is a possibility that some species can handle that.

"One reason is that they simply don't carry that many bad genes; the other is that natural selection may eventually purge it from the population."

Dr Cristina Valdiosera from the University of Copenhagen added that the paper suggested that a lack of genetic diversity in an endangered species should not hamper conservation efforts.

She said: "It's a myth that certain species are doomed by their genetics.

"If a species is doomed, it is only doomed by a lack of will to conserve it.

By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14563807

Most endangered feline brought back from the brink

Road signs throughout the vast Donana National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southwestern Spain, warn drivers to watch out for lynxes.

But actually there is little chance of spotting a member of the world's most endangered feline species, although collisions with vehicles are a risk.

Less than 50 of the creatures are believed to roam the park's 335 square kilometres (134 square miles) of scrubland, forests and marshes, one of the two remaining pockets of Spain where the Iberian Lynx is known to survive in the wild.

At the start of the 20th century there were around 100,000 in Spain and Portugal.
But urban development, hunting, and most of all a dramatic decline due to disease in the number of wild rabbits, the lynx's main prey, meant that barely 150 remained in the wild in 2002.
And the spotted cats, which can grow to about one metre (three feet) long and weigh about 15 kilogrammes (33 pounds), were in danger of being the first feline species to become extinct since the sabre-toothed tiger 10,000 years ago.

In a compound within the park, veterinarian Astrid Vargas has been running a captive breeding programme for the past five and a half years to bring the Iberian Lynx back from the brink of extinction -- and with remarkable success.

Vargas, an American from Puerto Rico, began the programme in December 2003 with five adults in Donana, four females and a male.

Last month, a total of 17 surviving cubs were born in captivity in Donana and in another breeding centre in La Olivilla, in Jaen province in south-central Spain, the most since the programme began.

There are now 77 lynxes in captivity at the two centres run by Vargas and in the zoo in the southwestern city of Jerez.

Vargas, who also holds a PhD in conservation biology, said she has now reached her goal of 30 adult males and 30 adult females necessary to begin reintroducing the species to the wild.

"We are now two years ahead of schedule of the growth projections for the captive breeding progamme. The next big challenge is to prepare the captive-born animals for their survival in the wild," she said.

The plan is to begin releasing a few animals next year into areas where they were at one time abundant.

In addition, in a separate but overlapping programme, some of the lynxes in the wild are to be translocated to new areas later this year.

"The idea is to form a sort of rosary of sites where the animals have corridors that allow exchanges between populations," said Vargas, while admitting this was near impossible due to urban development.

Two more breeding centres are also planned, in southern Portugal and in western Spain's Extremadura region, to cope with the growing numbers.

In Donana, the captive animals live in a fenced compound with 20 separate enclosures, where they are fed mostly rabbits, including live ones so the cubs can learn to hunt.

In a small building nearby, Vargas and her team of experts monitor them 24 hours a day using 57 closed-circuit television cameras.

Vargas glanced across nervously at her charges on the screens as she conducted this interview.
"Oh, the poor things are so hot today!" she said, as she watched three cubs desperately fighting off mosquitos in the baking heat of 43 degrees C (110 F).

"We try to intervene as little as possible, except when they fight," she said, noting that one of the first surviving set of cubs was killed in a fight with a sibling in 2005.

Suddenly, there is a crisis as a cub is seen climbing the fence, and head keeper Juana Bergara races out the door to stop the animal from falling to the ground and hurting itself.

All the animals have names, the first letters of which correspond to the year in which they were born, from Adela and Aliaga in 2004 to Fresno and Fernandina this year. Their different personalities, from aggressive to calm, are also recorded on a chart on the wall.

Vargas, who has worked on saving the black-footed ferret and the Mexican wolf in the United States and the Siberian tiger in Russia, said the work is "satisfying and very terribly tiring".
"When you are responsible for a lot of live animals that are critically endangered you never disconnect. It's day and night."

The captive breeding programme is just the start of a process that could take another 16 years and in which the Iberian lynx must pass from being "critically endangered" -- the highest category of risk for a wild animal under the International Union for Conservation of Nature -- to "endangered" to "threatened".

And Vargas explained that this is also just part of a wider project.

"Our ultimate very important goal is that we are not working on one single species, we are working on the protection of an endangered habitat, which is the Mediterranean forest and scrubland, and we are using the lynx as the ambassador.

"So we are investing in one animal for the well-being of a whole very important ecosystem that has been hammered for 20 years. It's what is called an umbrella species, because by protecting one species we are protecting a whole area."

Among other threatened species in the Donana National Park is the Spanish imperial eagle.
It may be many years before you can catch sight of an Iberian lynx in the wild. But the animals can be viewed by the public live online at http://icts.ebd.csic.es.

Denholm Barnetson

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090621/tsc-most-endangered-feline-brought-back-c2ff8aa.html