The Bear, Wolf and Lynx: coming back in Spain

It’s not all bad news in Spain, while environmental laws are being repealed (eg the  Coastal Protection law),  CO2 reduction measures scrapped, clean energy subsidies abolished  and budgets for parks and reserves decimated, some more progressive measures are still filtering through the system. also one side effect of people abandoning ‘uneconomic’ farms is more habitat for wildlife. Now the almost extinct lynx, brown bears and above all wolves are making a comebeck.

‘Court confirms the ban on wolf hunting south of the Douro River.  The lynx population triples in Andalusia in the last ten years

The Supreme Court has upheld a ban on the hunting of wolves south of the Douro River. The ruling rejects virtually all grounds of appeal filed by the Junta de Castilla y León against the judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice of the territory …

… That, in November 2005, overturned several articles of Decree 28/2008, of 3 April, which the Ministry of Environment of the community developed a Conservation and Management Plan for this species……

The High Court decision of Castilla and Leon now confirmed in almost all its terms allowed the appeal by the Federation of Ecologists in Action of Castile and Leon brought against that Plan Wolf Conservation and Management department led the Minister María Jesús Ruiz.

translated from Kaos en la Red, with thanks

The lynx population triples in Andalusia in the last ten years

Andalusia has tripled its population of Iberian lynx in the last decade thanks to the recovery and conservation program Life Lince, which currently protects to 309 cats in four areas of reintroduction distributed between Doñana and Sierra Morena.

The secretary general of the Environment and Water Board, Sergio Moreno, attended Monday in Villafranca de Córdoba to release two captive bred lynx and took stock of the program for reintroduction of this critically endangered species.

According to the latest census conducted by the technicians of Life Program, living in freedom, in an area of 1,040 square kilometers, 309 specimens (78 of them kittens), compared to the 94 it had in 2002.

Also during 2012 were 21 deaths of Iberian lynx in the wild (16 in Sierra Morena and Doñana five), of which 33 percent was because of abuses.

In the case of the region of Guadalmellato, which began the reintroduction of this species in 2009 and in which there has been the release Monday, the lynx population is 23 , of which six are kittens.

translated from Kaos en la Red, with thanks

Brown Bear gets some protection in Aragon pyrenees

 

While the Minister of Agriculture Aragonés and Environment Modesto Lobón claimed, first, that the brown bear is a value to be protected and not an enemy, and it intends to apply in the Aragonese Pyrenees the same model of management and conservation as in Asturias (which is a great improvement after the disastrous term of his predecessor Alfredo Bone who even considered that the brown bear was not a protected species), the government announced that there would be an Aragonese budget to enhance and protect farmers who share the bush with plantigrade. Bears in the Pyrenees has always expressed absolutely in favor of the conservation of the Brown Bear, his protection, expansion and evaluation.  and therefore payment of fair compensation to those farmers with bears in their mountains. The bear is not a problem as some bigoted cattle associations . It is an advantage. But we must also recognize that a number of drawbacks that must be compensated. 

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Related articles

• The 6 Most Endangered Feline Species (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
• For the first time Iberian lynx embryos are collected and preserved (earthsky.org)
• First 5-cub litter at the Portuguese Iberian Lynx Conservation-breeding Centre (CNRLI) (axazevedo.wordpress.com)
• Bill appears to bypass wolf hunt outcry (record-eagle.com)