STORY: The sprint into the wild. Several tracker-equipped Iberian lynxes were released this week in southern Spain as part of an expanded breeding program to conserve one of the world’s most endangered feline species. The rare animals can be recognized by their characteristic long black ear tufts. Saturno and Sotillo, two male lynxes bred in captivity, and two wild-born females, Solera and Ilexa, with their cub, Terre, are set to reproduce in the wild, here in the Sierra Arana mountainous region of the Andalusian province of Granada. ‘It is the specific aim of this project to create a resettlement area here,’ said program coordinator Javier Salcedo. “This is another milestone for this project.” In 2002, the Iberian lynx was on the brink of extinction due to poaching, traffic accidents, and the destruction of its habitat by agriculture. At that time only 94 registered examples remained in Spain and none in Portugal. In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded the species from critically endangered to endangered. The Spanish Environment Ministry attributes this to ongoing conservation efforts. There are now 522 Iberian lynxes living in Andalusia alone. According to the international nature conservation organization WWF, the population of the species would have to include at least 3,000 animals, including 750 pregnant females, to be classified as no longer endangered.