Drones to help track Spain’s Iberian lynx

Link to the original article: The Telegraph

In Spain, conservationists will use drones to help save the endangered Iberian lynx after a technology consortium reached an agreement with regional authorities.

The beautiful animal, which has numbered 327 in the wild since the critical level of 94 at the turn of the century, has benefited from a captive breeding program.

However, they often travel long distances after being released, exposing them to greater risks, particularly from traffic. Last year, 21 died on Spanish roads.

José Fiscal, Andalusia’s head of environment, said on Monday that using the best available technology had already helped the animal’s recovery, but more had to be done.

The current system consists of a radio operator tuning the collars worn by released lynxes.

Now, an agreement has been signed between a technological consortium and the Junta de Andalucía to design an air tracking system.

The €20,000 deal with tech companies Enel Green Power and Microsensory will see the development of a prototype specifically designed to track lynx equipped with radio markers.

“These collars have provided valuable information on the territory and routes used by individual cats, but tracking was terrain dependent and required daily monitoring by an operator,” said Fiscal

Lynx have been released in five different locations considered sufficiently remote and where rabbit breeding programs have been launched this year in Spain and neighboring Portugal.

In March, however, the World Wide Fund for Nature reported that a young male named Kentario had wandered more than 60 miles from where he was released, in Toledo province, tracked down just 30 miles from central Madrid. after crossing several highways.

While in October a lynx named Hongo, who had saved himself from drowning in an irrigation pond as a cub, was found dead on a road in Portugal, 150 miles from where he was nursed back to health and released in its natural habitat in Doñana, Andalusia. National Park.

Scientists recently confirmed that several lynxes had made their home in the Guadarrama Mountains near the Spanish capital.