Wildlife

Iberian Lynx in Crisis: Virus Outbreak Threatens the World’s Most Endangered Cat

Hidden in the marshes and mountains of southwestern Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, the last Iberian lynx may be quietly padding into history.

The lynx’s future depends on whether its sole prey, the European rabbit, can survive an outbreak of a disease known as rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV). A new variant of RHDV has arrived with a vengeance, leaving dead rabbits across Iberia—and lynx with little to eat. RHDV has appeared at least twice before in other variants, and has caused precipitous declines in rabbit populations. The new strain will further bottom-out rabbit numbers.

As a result, the critically endangered Iberian lynx may be the first feline to go extinct since the saber-toothed tiger millennia ago. Iberian lynx are on the brink, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.