00:06We were one step away, one generation away from losing the species.
00:12Everybody was really worried back then because there were anecdotal sightings of lynxes,
00:18but the technicians, the biologists, weren't finding them.
00:24I think this project is a huge source of hope for conservation worldwide.
00:30We know that introducing a top predator will change the dynamic that we see with other species in the wild.
00:35We're not only saving Iberian lynxes, we're also saving the rest of the habitat.
01:04My passion for lynxes came from my youth, from my family.
01:08My mother is a doctor and my father is an engineer with a passion for wildlife.
01:12Just at seven years old, matching those two influences, I decided I wanted to do this.
01:19Rodrigo Serra leads the Iberian lynx captive breeding center in Silvish, Portugal.
01:25He opened it in 2009 as part of a last-ditch effort to save this iconic cat.
01:31One of just three species of wild cats left in Europe, lynx once roamed the entire Iberian Peninsula.
01:41But by the late 20th century, hunting, habitat loss, and the decline of its main prey had caused the population
01:49to dive.
01:51With less than 100 lynxes, you really don't have second chances, so you need a safety net.
01:58That's why Rodrigo started his center.
02:02But there was a catch.
02:03In order to get the program up and running, they needed to capture some of the few remaining wild cats
02:10to breed with others already in captivity.
02:13With so few lynx remaining in the wild, it was a risky undertaking.
02:20The team had little experience, and many of the cats even less.
02:28A young female, they named Flora, was one of the first to arrive here.
02:34She'd been born at another facility and transferred when she was only a year old.
02:41So Flora has been a founder of this captive breeding center.
02:44At the beginning here, we have a lot of animals, animals that we didn't know at the time, but that
02:49were not experienced enough to breed properly.
02:52Like Flora, she lost the first litter that she had here.
02:57From the outset, the caretakers understood that there would be difficult times along the way.
03:03But with the population so critically low, there was no going back.
03:08We didn't have time to think about how we felt about the early days.
03:16We just had to push through and keep going.
03:20That's what we focused on.
03:23With time, Flora figured things out.
03:26And flourished.
03:28She had more than 20 cubs, 17 of which were reintroduced.
03:35Flora has spent her entire life in captivity.
03:38But her most recent litter will be her last at the breeding center.
03:43She's now being given the chance to live out the remainder of her life in the wild.
03:49It's a mix of being excited for Flora.
03:52She has a chance of freedom.
03:55But it's also a feeling of responsibility and fear for what can happen to her.
04:01Flora isn't the only one Rodrigo is worried about.
04:04The team is planning to try something it has never attempted before.
04:10They'll be letting her go with one of her most recent cubs, Ulan.
04:16At 13 months, Ulan is already showing signs of independence.
04:21The team is hoping his mother will guide him through the uncertain transition to life on the outside.
04:29The males have a tendency to disperse outside the areas that we want them to stay in.
04:35And we're going to see if Flora helps with keeping the family unit where we want them to be.
04:42Learning to live on their own will be an adjustment.
04:45But caretakers like Vanessa Silva-Requazao have worked carefully to prepare them for this opportunity.
04:53So the closures where Ulan and Flora are, they are right in the back.
05:00We have the enclosures all protected from the view of humans.
05:06The 16 pens are laid out to keep the humans and lynx apart.
05:10But the caretakers keep a very close eye on the animals from a network of cameras that feed into a
05:16control room.
05:19When the lynx are fed, their caretakers make sure to stay hidden.
05:24They're fed via a system of tunnels with live prey so they learn how to hunt.
05:31And they disconnect the presence of food with the presence of humans.
05:37As in the wild, mealtime is always unpredictable.
05:42If you have four lynxes, you don't supply four rabbits a day.
05:46Sometimes you supply two, sometimes you supply five, sometimes you supply three, sometimes you supply none.
05:58The approach helps prepare them for life beyond the breeding center.
06:05And if an animal starts to feel comfortable around humans,
06:08which could be dangerous for it after it's released, the team has a plan for that too.
06:14If it's necessary, we go inside and scare them with lots of noises and we just run after them.
06:23After one, two weeks, they will learn that they have to run from us.
06:30Flora and Ulan, like all the other cats at the center, have been carefully prepared for life in the wild.
06:38But there's another side to that equation.
06:41They'll only survive out there if the wild has been prepared for them.
06:47Most critical is making sure they'll have enough to eat.
06:52And that calls for rabbits.
06:57Unlike some big cats that hunt a wide range of prey, Iberian lynx are specialists.
07:03Nearly all of their diet is European rabbit.
07:06But unfortunately, wild rabbits have been hit almost as hard as the lynx.
07:13Fabio Abad dos Santos has been studying why the rabbit population crashed.
07:18And what he can do to help rebuild it.
07:22Wild rabbit is a case stone species of Iberian peninsula.
07:26That means that as a source of food, they have an oversized impact on lots of other species in their
07:33habitat.
07:34The rabbit's decline came primarily from a series of viral outbreaks that struck in the 1950s and 1980s.
07:42Including one initiated by farmers, who saw the rabbits as pests.
07:49Over the last 75 years, the outbreaks have taken out more than 90% of European rabbits.
07:57The predators that depend on them, foxes, raptors, mongooses, and lynx, suffered the consequences.
08:08With nothing to eat, lynx populations plummeted.
08:11And without lynx helping to cull sick rabbits, the outbreak spread further and deeper than they would have otherwise.
08:20The entire ecosystem was thrown out of balance.
08:24Which is why Fabio is working to help resurrect the rabbits.
08:30Reproducing rabbits in captivity is easier compared with other species.
08:34But the most difficult thing is to put these rabbits in the wild.
08:39Just to adapt them to viral diseases.
08:43There are effective vaccines against the viruses.
08:46And they're easy to administer to rabbits in captivity.
08:49But vaccinating wild rabbits requires ingenuity and technology.
08:55Fabio has used both to create a custom feeding station, serving up kibble with a side of vaccine.
09:02So the animals surrounding the area will be recognized by two cameras.
09:09Machine learning algorithms identify a European rabbit when it enters the station, triggering the vaccination unit.
09:16The vaccine will be pressurized and enter the skin of an animal without a needle.
09:24The high-pressure jet vaccinates the rabbit and scares it away from the feeder.
09:31Fabio's system is poised to become a useful new tool for strengthening the wild European rabbit population.
09:39The breeding program and vaccine, combined with natural immunity passed on by wild survivors of the viruses, bode well for
09:47the rabbits.
09:48And by extension, the lynx.
09:52Especially in areas like this, Extremadura, Spain is a perfect habitat for lynx.
10:00Rodrigo has successfully released other lynx here before.
10:03And if all goes well, Flora and Ulan will soon join them.
10:09It's a beautiful place with high rabbit density, very good habitat and very low presence of people.
10:18A sparse human population is good for the lynx.
10:22But the people who are there are critical to the success of the program.
10:27Because most of the land out here is privately owned.
10:31And the farming and hunting traditions that help drive the cats towards extinction still continue.
10:38If you don't get everyone on board, your chances of success are really low.
10:45In the past, farmers often shot lynx because they worried they'd prey on their livestock.
10:51But Rodrigo has used science to turn that argument on its head.
10:56He's shown the farmers that the lynx are not really a problem.
11:00Because they primarily focus on rabbits.
11:03In fact, their presence helps keep other predators that target rabbits and domesticated animals at bay.
11:11We're not introducing the lynx because it's such a beautiful animal.
11:15It is, but that's not the main reason.
11:17The role of the Iberian lynx in its habitat is to control the other carnivores, smaller carnivores.
11:25As an apex predator, lynx eliminate these smaller hunters called mesopredators, which they see as competition.
11:34That can actually increase the number of rabbits here, even if the lynx take their fair share.
11:39The rabbits, in turn, encourage a healthier, more diverse ecosystem by grazing and spreading seeds.
11:51The local farmers benefit too.
11:53They have fewer mesopredators attacking their lambs and chickens and have a healthy rabbit population to hunt.
12:01That's a welcome outcome for this community.
12:06I'm not a hunter, but I think that nature, ecologies and hunting are not different things.
12:12The hunters, they are the first people who want to maintain nature as it is.
12:21Bernardo Rivera de Aguilar is part of a group of landowners and hunting societies that support the reintroductions.
12:30They've opened up some 1,200 square miles of land for lynx and rabbits.
12:37The landowners are really our eyes. They're directly partners of the project.
12:45It's an honor, hopefully 20 years from now, when I see to my grandson or granddaughter and I say like,
12:51you know, you know the Iberian lynx? I say, oh yeah, dad, I've seen many of them.
12:56Yeah, but there was none. And your grandfather was one of the person who made together with some other to
13:02come back.
13:12Two of the cats Bernardo hopes they'll be talking about are Flora and Ulan.
13:17The time has come for their transfer and release.
13:24I'm going in. I'm starting the capture now.
13:28Okay.
13:29Where are you?
13:50Just after daybreak, the lynx begin their five-hour journey to their new home.
13:59This is the longest the two cats have ever been apart.
14:04When they arrive at the release site, Flora, Ulan and the team are greeted by a crowd of well-wishers.
14:17It's still emotional. Year after year, it is.
14:28Flora will be freed first, followed immediately by Ulan.
14:34Flora will only be different.
14:36No, no.
14:45I can't wait.
14:47I can't wait.
14:55No, no.
14:57You've had to do that.
14:57No, no, no.
14:58This is your favorite camera.
15:00I've seen him at home.
15:01No, no, no.
15:03That's right.
15:36You're all good.
15:48The team will monitor Flora and Ulan with radio callers and camera traps for years to come.
15:56But the immediate reports show they're off to a good start.
16:01Flora has already been seen hunting rabbits and Ulan remains near her.
16:07For Rodrigo, their success is just one part of a bigger story.
16:12Because of the efforts by centers like his, what was once a wild population of fewer than 100 has grown
16:21to more than 2,000.
16:24The story of the Iberian lynx is a good example of conservation.
16:29One thing you can do to help the Iberian lynx is spread its story.
16:33It can help out other projects and other species.
16:37Conservation does work.
16:38The story of Wild Hope
16:55And come back on Mondays for more Wild Hope right here at PBS Nature on YouTube.
17:00All right.
17:02Iberian lynx is a good one.
17:03So, if you're wallowing for your goals there are many others!
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