In the next three to four weeks, Granadilla and Myrtilis will coexist in a pen where you try to adapt to the conditions and means of characteristics. It will not be difficult, especially as ICNF the technicians will not stop, these days, "free" in place some wild rabbits, which are the essential spice in the diet Bobcats. Different sort had Monfragüe male on the same day was "released" directly in nature, in a procedure that experts call "hard loose."
In 2015 were released in Mértola region a dozen lynxes, a process that the spaces, has been criticized and even opposition by some local landowners and even populations. A situation that Pedro Rocha, director of the Department of Nature Conservation and Alentejo Forests says "is being exceeded" or "at least on the right track."
Of the 10 animals released in the first year of the reintroduction of the Iberian lynx project, only one female died of poisoning in March 2015. Pedro Rocha believes that communication between the different entities involved in the process and people "will bring good results in the future. People are realizing that the arrival Bobcats did not bring any restrictions on traditional activities, whether agricultural or hunting. By the way, yesterday held a large riding in this region, people have been alerted to the presence of lynx, and everything went well. "
The three Bobcats this week were released in Mértola region are the first of a set of nine (five males and four females) that provides ICNF there drop over 2016. Pedro Rocha said the "Alentejo's Daily" that "these reintroduction programs, things do not happen from one day to the other. " Regular releases of animals are necessary to ensure the creation of new populations. This is what is happening just around the Herdade das Romeiras where biologists that accompany and monitor the lynx there returned to nature can already identify the "core founder" of what will be the future population of this species that still remains at risk Portugal.
For what is expected to even avoid the possibility of births in inbreeding, the reintroduction program be undertaken over the next three or four years, with a rate of release of a dozen animals each year. To point out that, for the conservation of the Iberian lynx, were contracted with farm owners and tourist hunting areas and associative about 19 hectares of land.