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Date Published: 14/07/2023

Lorca lynxes: another animal is now being treated for malnutrition

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The dangerously underweight wild cat was found wandering around a Lorca farm

Lorca lynxes: another animal is now being treated for malnutrition

Things are going from bad to worse for the group of wild cats released into the Lorca highlands in a desperate attempt to repopulate the vulnerable species in the Region of Murcia.

Last month, one of the eight lynxes, Tiko, died suddenly after ingesting huge amounts of plastic and now another, known as Tejo, has been rescued from a nearby Lorca farm and taken to a wildlife centre for treatment.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, Tejo has been steadily losing weight since the beginning of June and looks in poor condition overall. He was popped on the scales after being captured on the grounds of a country house and his carers were shocked to find has lost 20% of his body weight since joining his new habitat in April.

Starving Tejo now weighs in at just 9.2 kilos and the team at El Valle wildlife recovery centre will check him over and decide whether it’s safe to return him to the wild.

Meanwhile, his mate Torrealvilla managed to remove her GPS collar near the Puentes reservoir and not a trace of her has been found in more than a month. However, experts have scoured the roads and found no evidence that she was involved in a traffic accident and her collar doesn’t show any signs of being tampered with.

Despite camera traps being set up over a huge area, Torrealvilla has failed to appear, but the Life LynxConnect project is still confident she will turn up safe and well. These cats can travel more than 15 kilometres in a single night and their Lorca habitat is vast, yet since four animals were released three months ago most of them have wandered farther afield into built-up areas.

The fourth lynx, Tahúlla, is still inside her approved zone and apparently doing well.

Meanwhile, two remaining breeding pairs are still in a smaller, temporary enclosure to get used to the surroundings before their ‘hard release’ into the wider countryside.

Although both the Ministry and the leaders of the project insist that the lynx reintroduction in the Region will continue, it’s off to a really disappointing start. While the highlands give the animals plenty of scope in theory, the new habitat is located dangerously close to several busy highways and the lure of the nearby towns is proving irresistible.

Image: CARM

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