Lynx make a comeback across Europe with rewilding efforts
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Conservation programs are helping both Eurasian and Iberian lynx populations recover across Europe, with rewilding initiatives playing a key role in restoring their habitats and prey base.
For centuries, these cats suffered from habitat loss, hunting, and declining food sources, pushing them towards extinction. However, recent efforts have seen a dramatic turnaround.
The Iberian lynx, found only in Spain and Portugal, has rebounded from a critically endangered status to vulnerable, with the population exceeding 2,600 animals by 2025, a 95% increase in just four years. Simultaneously, the Eurasian lynx, ranging across Scandinavia, Central, and Eastern Europe, has grown from a low of around 700 individuals in the mid-20th century to an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 today, thanks to reintroduction and protection programs.
Rewilding Europe and partner organizations are actively working to support these recoveries. In Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley, they are releasing rabbits, the Iberian lynx’s primary prey, to encourage recolonization. In Poland’s Oder Delta, a reintroduction program has released 103 Eurasian lynx since its start, with at least 40 females successfully reproducing. In Croatia, translocations from the Carpathian Mountains are increasing genetic diversity within the Dinaric lynx population.
Even in Britain, where lynx have been absent for centuries, the Lynx to Scotland initiative is exploring potential reintroduction plans, finding that nearly two-thirds of the Scottish public support the idea. These efforts highlight the potential for people and carnivores to coexist, strengthening ecosystems and restoring a sense of wildness to European landscapes.
