I don't quite understand what you mean (? I do agree that we first should focus on setting good "retirement homes" for old breeding animals within the peninsula. Barcelona seems like the prime candidate (And hopefully, a future home) for the Iberian lynx.
Which zoos that would have good facilities would fit with exhibiting Iberian lynx in Spain and Portugal that currently do not have them? Barcelona? Others?
Barcelona is the first one that pops into my mind. I guess Cañada Real could be a candidate too? I can't think of any more proper parks, but I do imagine Cabarceno and Sendaviva showing interest in them (But go figure if they would meet the requirements of housing the species). I should do more research into Portuguese parks, I sadly don't know much about them.
Sadly, Cañada Real closed last year. It's incredible but Spanish zoos may have reached their maximum capacity for Iberian lynx, in just about 15 years since they started to hold them.
Well it's nice to see they sent some outside to France and hopefully more facilities across Europe will follow. If some could make their way here to the USA that would be even better.
Can’t remember where I read it, but there was a suggestion to consider an introduction to the UK, as the species is probably better adapted to the current British climate than Eurasian Lynx is, and it would be a good insurance population. Interesting idea, but I don’t see anything coming of it!
Is that based on actual genetics of the UK former population. If not, it is a convenience science project rather than a sound planning process for eventual reintroduction. Is it not possible the mix up is due to greater bustard as an example. The mid western European population was a better fit than the Saratov - Russia lot.
As far as I know, there is no suggestion that the extinct British population was anything other than Eurasian. The three main strands of the idea were than thanks to rabbits being introduced, the UK is now more biotically akin to Iberia, that if we were a peninsula rather than an island, Iberian Lynx might colonise naturally (presumably the absence in France was supposed to be due to the small population not producing enough surplus to colonise there first) and finally the fact that a rabbit feeder would be a less contentious carnivore than a deer feeder (which presumably will attack sheep, and at least according to tabloid newspapers, people). It’s an interesting argument, and one which certainly brings into focus questions of how natural we should consider our heavily modified world.
