Portugese Forest Fires Drive Vanishing Lynx Into Spain

[hatrack]

LISBON—"Already facing an uphill battle for survival, the rare Iberian lynx has been driven by recent forest fires from its natural habitat in Portugal into Spain, according to Portuguese ecologists and environmentalists.

The fires, which scorched more than 50,000 hectares (125,000 acres) of woodland and Mediterranean maquis, have “imperiled the survival of the Iberian lynx because of the gradual vanishing of the wild rabbit,” the lynx’s preferred prey, explained Ana Fernandes of the environmental protection association Quercus. There are fewer than 150 lynx remaining on the Iberian peninsula, of which no more than a few dozen are in Portugal, according to various studies.

The delicate food chain that sustains the “European tiger,” as the lynx is sometimes called, had already been severely weakened by the deliberate introduction of the myxoma virus to control local populations of wild rabbit and hare, considered as pests.

Now the fires have further reduced rabbit numbers—and the lynx’s food supply—by destroying greats swathes of the vegetation upon which the burrowing mammals feed."

EDIT

[soothsayer]

1. link----is that singular for lynx?