Huelva (EFE).- Two specimens of Iberian lynx, belonging to the Doñana-Aljarafe population, have died in the last few hours after being run over on roads in the surroundings of the Doñana natural space, as reported by Ecologistas en Acción.
In a statement, the organization has specified that it is, on the one hand, a young female killed by a hit-and-run on the N-442 road from Huelva to Mazagón, in the area of the Lagunas de Palos y Las Madres Natural Park, and on the other another, of an adult male killed on the highway from Hinojos to Villamanrique, A-481, in front of the Hinojos residence for the elderly, in the same black spot where another specimen was run over in January 2020, five specimens in 2022 and another on March 8 of this year.
For Ecologists in Action, these deaths demonstrate “the ineffectiveness of the measures adopted by the Junta de Andalucía for the permeabilization of all highways and paved agricultural roads for fauna, especially for protected fauna, such as the Iberian lynx, with the maximum guarantees of road safety for people”.
These measures, which are those provided for in the so-called Life Safe-Crossing, endowed with 4 million euros and shared by Andalusia with Italy and Greece for the protection of bears and wolves in those countries, in addition to the Iberian lynx, basically consist of three types of action: installations of innovative AVC-PS systems for the prevention of accidents and virtual barriers, road information panels and conservation, communication and dissemination actions.
Killings of Iberian lynx specimens in recent years
In 2020, 12 lynxes died after being run over in Doñana; in 2021 at least six lynxes killed by run over and eight in 2022. As of today there are already four specimens that have suffered run overs in the region so far in 2023, one of which did not die.
Ecologists in Action has asked the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, to “get seriously involved in the conservation of this unique feline in the world, beyond the release of captive-bred specimens”, to coordinate the two ministries competent bodies, that of Development and that of the Environment, and that it coordinate with the Government of Spain to “focus their efforts together and as a matter of urgency, in correcting all the black spots on Andalusian roads”.
