The return of the Algarve Tiger

In 2001, I first wrote ‘The Algarve Tiger’ – a book named after the last Portuguese population of the world’s most endangered big cat, it was published in 2002 – a year when the last remaining Portuguese lynxes could not be found by field researchers and were then presumed extinct in Portugal.

Fast forward to 2018, and we are waiting for the return of the 29 Iberian Lynxes to their home in the Algarve mountains. These captive bred lynxes were evacuated after the devastating fires in the Algarve mountains threatened their enclosures, in an efficient and exceptionally well co-ordinated move. These Algarve lynxes currently safe in three different centres in Spain will return soon. But what of their wild cousins?

There are many rabbit rich pockets of the matagal of the Algarve mountain ranges, Serra do Caldeirao and Monchique, and the reintroduced lynxes are breeding and expanding from their safe havens north-east in the Vale do Guadiana and Donana in Spain. At least one radio-collared lynx traveller, Litio has already explored the Algarve in a search for a home range. The last stronghold of the Iberian lynxes in Portugal in the ’90’s could become home territory again in the next few years.

It is just three years since the first Iberian lynx were released into the wild in Portugal, I still find every release thrilling, every birth in the wild gives me goosebumps, this cat has captured my imagination for all time. I can get emotional over a roadsign, but only when it has a lynx silhouette. Because the warning triangle with the lynx silhouette says to me. I exist. I am here. And frankly, that’s a modern day miracle.

It’s a fantastic fact to know that this species is now such a success and to be able to research and reveal what has brought this cat back from the brink can only enrich us all. This is Europe’s only endemic species. This is an Iberian apex predator. This is a re-balancing of our natural world, as well as species recovery in our time. Like anything worth keeping, the Iberian lynx was worth fighting for, and she was fought for, by many. And we won. And that is exciting to write about. I am really enjoying writing the sequel because I cannot wait to see the Return of the Algarve Tiger.

© Siobhan Mitchell

The return of the Algarve Tiger