An Iberian lynx is about the size of a medium dog - much smaller than a leopard but bigger than a house cat. It hunts mainly one thing: wild rabbits. A single lynx can eat one a day. When the wild rabbits became sick in Spain and Portugal, the lynx almost disappeared too, because they had nothing to hunt.
Scientists and conservationists set up big projects to help the lynx. They bred lynx kittens in special centres, then released them carefully into wild scrubland and cork oak forests. They also worked to bring the rabbits back, by planting wild bushes and making safe burrows.
It worked. In 2002, there were fewer than 100 Iberian lynx alive in the whole world. By 2024, there were more than 2,000. It is one of the biggest comeback stories in nature.
Iberian lynx are shy. You almost never see one in the wild - they hunt at dawn and dusk and hide in the day. But hidden cameras in Portuguese cork oak forests sometimes catch them slinking through. Each lynx has its own pattern of spots, so scientists can tell who is who.