In February of 2021, the family and I made our way to Spain on a short break, a pre-COVID booking that got pushed and pushed. I’m actually grateful the push forced us to rebook in February rather than the original August as temperatures in the Sevilla region have been skyrocketing recent years, earning the name of the dustbowl. Hardly a holiday conducive to wildlife watching. It’s quiet anyway in August without the extreme heat.

I am dedicating this post to the Iberian lynx alone – we saw many interesting species on the day we spent with our friend Jose, but the Iberian lynx truly deserves a special place on my blog. Especially given the gravitas seeing one held for me – it was one of my life’s top 5 wildlife moments….so far.

We met with our tracker and guide for the day, Jose, at a small car park in a non-descript suburb of Sevilla’s urban sprawl early in the morning, having driven 1.5 hours form our northern farm retreat. We immediately headed to the prime lynx area parking up an hour or two after daybreak and setting off on foot into the forest.

The forests in this part of Spain are a mix of pine and deciduous trees, with slightly more of the former, and were very dry this time of year, everything brittle to the touch. The area was going through a huge drought, especially evident in the Cote Donana which was lower in water than it had been for years.

Our morning walk soon gave us signs of the lynx, with footprints and scat on the paths but no sighting. After a few hours of searching we decided to spend the warmer hours of the day looking for target bird species such as black stork and bluethroat (both found).

Returning an hour or two before dusk we set up camp at the top of a small incline and waited…and then I suddenly saw a shape emerge at the end of the road…could it be? That’s when I finally laid eyes on my first Iberian lynx. We all got very excited and followed Jose’s advice to slowly approach the area it had walked into. On approaching, heart racing, there it was sitting quietly in the bush, looking right at us.

What happened next was magic. It started to move through the forest and allowed us to follow 10 metres behind. We watched it stalk and pounce on prey, all the time ambivalent to our presence. We could not believe our luck. We continued a way into the woodland and then the lynx decided to rest, metres away from us, with rays of the dwindling evening sun hitting its face. It looked so peaceful sitting there and then our eyes met. I actually felt pretty emotional locking eyes with a species so close to extinction only 10 or so years ago. What an experience.

We let it continue on its way and tried to calm ourselves down. What had just happened? Was it real? I will never forget our Iberian Lynx encounter.