The organization Ecologistas en Acción deplored two more deaths caused by an Iberian lynx run over this Sunday night, one on the A-8060 motorway, between the Sevillian municipalities of Villamanrique de la Condesa and Pilas, and another towards Arquillos, in the province of Jaén. Thus, in addition to the lynx killed in other regions of the country, the complaint indicates that the number of deaths in the Doñana region in 2024 will amount to 12.
This was stated by the spokesman for Ecologists in Action at the Doñana Participation Council, Juan Romero, in which he criticized “that no measures are being taken to prevent abuses.” From this point of view, he considers that it was “rather hasty” on the part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to remove the lynx from the “endangered” category last June to classify it as “vulnerable.”
Romero stressed that “if we do things the same way or if we do nothing, we will get the same results, that is, the lynx and its populations will collapse.” That is why environmentalists propose that in areas the lynxes “speed is controlled and limited” on their roads and that they have “adequate signage” and, above all, “the creation of corrective measures, such as underpasses or the raising of roads in certain cases.”
The risk of “great frustration”
“The competent institutions, in this case the European Union, the State and the junta, should take note of this and get to work now. Otherwise, our joy at having recovered a species can quickly turn into great frustration,” Romero concluded.
The last accident occurred on August 7 (on the A-49, near Villarrasa, in Huelva), which brought to 11 the number of animals killed in the Doñana area in 2024, nine by accident, one by gunshot and one “for an unknown cause.” With this Sunday’s figure, they rise to 12 compared to 16 in 2023 (13 due to an accident) in the population registered in Doñana and Aljarafe, according to data from Ecologistas en Acción.
