A Spanish nature conservation center reports the birth of a baby lynx. The wild cat is the first of its species born in the Pyrenees in nearly a century.
The Eurasian lynx is a medium-sized mammal with strong legs, black-tipped tail, and black-tufted ears. God made its webbed paws to be perfect for walking on snow. The design works well—since this feline prefers high-altitude forests where snow is common.
The Eurasian lynx is the largest of the four lynx species. (Others are the bobcat and the Canadian and Iberian lynxes.) Eurasian lynxes inhabit Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe as well as parts of Central Asia, Siberia, Tibet, and the Himalayas. The International Union for Conservation of Nature says the species is stable in Asia and Northern Europe—though it may be endangered in other parts of Europe.
In the Spanish and French Pyrenees, experts consider the Eurasian lynx extinct. The last time this species of cat was seen in these mountains was in the 1930s. So when the lynx was born at the MónNatura Pirineus Center, officials there were excited.
Last week, the center released images of the new baby feline cavorting in its enclosure. The lynx chews on and swats at an adult lynx’s paws, inspects a log, and rolls playfully in the dirt. The baby lynx’s parents were born in captivity in another part of Spain before being brought to the Pyrenees center in 2008. Welcome, Baby Lynx!
(“What’s the fuss?” says the two month old lynx. Fundacion Catalunya La Pedrera Via AP)
