Iberian Lynxes doomed

This topic was created by Masked Avenger .

[Aitor 1]

Re: Iberian Lynxes doomed

British politicians seem determined not to respect basic human rights. They are not alone.

As for the Lynx.. well, the Public Authorities that had to protect the Lynx in Doñana decided to use public funds to illegally build an asplhalt road through the middle of a national park so people could go there to get drunk and hear flamenco (to a small village called Rocío, supposedly to worship the maiden there, how that includes lots of booze and sex intrigues me).

Then the minister said that they had built an "underground pass" and that lynxes should use it.. and if they were stupid enough to go over the road it was their fault (you can google all of this).

That was the previous government.

The current government agrees with Lewis in that there is no climate change, and even if there is, there is nothing we can do, so let's burn coal and gas, give subsidies to power companies and keep using the revolving door to "retire" from the government to the power companies.

Lynxes have many problems, and of course they should have more space.. but there is nowhere they can go: all towns in Spain seem to have reached the understanding that progress=concrete and empty weekend houses to tax. so no space for Lynxes, etc.

What the scientists are saying is that as Spain is heating and getting dryer, the captive (as in surrounded by "civilization") populations will die out.

On Saturday I was with my MTB in their historical ranges in Madrid. They can't live there. Most of the forests have been cut down, and replaced by low vegetation, cow fields, roads, etc.

As for Lewis.. well, I agree in many things with him, but in others I strongly disagree. I would really like to have a chat with him.. just to try to convince him of the reality..

[breakfast]

Re: Iberian Lynxes doomed

I wonder if they could post any over here. We're up to our ears in rabbits and a few awesome felines to munch on them would be awesome. Also with climate change liable to make things warmer ( possibly ) there's a chance that our climate will get even more Lynx friendly in future ( possibly ).

If Cameron thinks we're not allowed porn, he should compensate us with a shedload of lynxes.

[EddieD]

Re: Iberian Lynxes doomed

"If Cameron thinks we're not allowed porn, he should compensate us with a shedload of lynxes."

We Brits can't even preserve our last wild cat - the Scottish wild cat is heading for extinction in the next few years, the most pessimistic guess is about 18 months, the most optimistic is a decade or so. Cross breeding with domestic/feral cats is the biggest problem.

The lynx has the problem that it it is very pretty, and all the politicians want it in their region, bugger the science, this is popular politics.

Such a shame

[Dan 55]

Re: Iberian Lynxes doomed

I doubt it's about how pretty they are. I bet there's EU subsidies somewhere behind this, and trickle-down economics which eventually distributes them to the regional great and the good (inside envelopes). I'm sure that's why they're willing to waste loads of money introducing Lynxes to places where they obviously won't survive.

I have no evidence at all for this assertion, but then again Bárcenas and press releases like “Significant cost differences between EU-cofinanced road projects" are current news.

The Court calculated the total, total construction and roadway construction costs per 1000 m2 of road surface. The projects audited in Germany had the lowest cost per 1000 m2 in all three categories (average total costs 287 043 € in Germany, 496 208 € in Spain; see Figure 2 of the report). There is no evidence that this can be explained by labour costs.

[John Hughes]

Re: Iberian Lynxes doomed

As Page himself quotes:

"Anticipated climate change will rapidly and severely decrease lynx abundance and probably lead to its extinction in the wild within 50 years, even with strong global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions."

I.E. his headline is bollocks.

[TeeCee]

Re: Iberian Lynxes doomed

I'm off to register wherehaveallthecatsandporngone.com

I think you'll find that "tumblr" is shorter, snappier, easier to type and has the same meaning.

[Irongut]

Did anyone else read that headline as "€400k-a-head Iberian Linux mainly threatened by Spanish politics"?

Maybe I need to get out more...

[ScissorHands]

Local politics, they said. Madrid is bad for your health, they said.

Of course if the autonomies got money directly from Europe for "regional" conservation, why would they release the fruits of the grumble-felines on other regions?

[Chris G]

Unless there is money in it or a chance to shoot it

The Spanish are not very interested in animal conservation, although they do seem to walk around with yapping bits of navel fluff on long pieces of string.

I have it on good authority that farmers in Spain still want to shoot at Lynx and any raptor bigger than a kestrel because they think they are a threat to their livestock.

So setting up enormously expensive photo safari parks that allegedly have lynx in them is about the only chance they will have so long as a politician can make some kind of capital out of it. The rabbits that haven't been run over have usually been shot so it may need a European grant to re-stock the Iberian rabbit population too.

Re Dan55; The Germans ask each other why they want to go on holiday in Spain? The answer? So that they can drive on the lovely new roads and go through the wonderful tunnels they have paid for!