The Elusive Iberian Lynx | Wild Stories | BBC Earth

one privileged moment which i think i'll remember for the rest of my life where i was out by myself you know you just get that sick sense for some reason you turn around he was just sat up on a rock behind me just kind of watching me doing what i was doing we were just two animals in the same place in the same time there was just acceptance on both sides and it was this really magical moment [Music] my name is charlotte i was the assistant producer on the europe show of seven worlds one planet and for the lynx shoot i was the field director for the europe program i think the key thing we wanted to get across was that even though there are limited or less wild spaces in what is a pretty much human dominated landscape that there are surprising stories there's new and unexpected and that wherever there was wild green space we could find animals the iberian lynx is one of the world's rarest cats it's very elusive it's quite shy and it only exists really now in a handful of small population in spain and portugal we start in the first years of this century with less than 100 individuals and now we have near 600 so i'm absolutely positive about the future of the links the project that we were working with the ibelinfe project they do have a number of individuals collards but the distances that the lynx travel and the landscape they live in is is vast and even when you're looking at an iberian links and you know it's there it it's still really impossible to pull out they are they are so camouflaged we initially thought we would be camera trapping in the more wild spaces away from people and human habitation but it quickly became apparent that the links were also moving around fringes of urbanization near the motorways near people's houses that was a big revelation to us [Music] we are setting up camera traps today for the hope that we get links coming past in this really busy area this cat is so rare you just think it's going to be tucked away in a remote corner that people haven't touched for years it is so weird to be out here next to a motorway looking for the last blinks in the world when you see a motorway you think cars and lorries uh you do not think endangered species these roads are so dangerous so they're actually using these underpasses there's drain systems that go under the road that gave us a very good focus of where the links might be moving through and that's where the most success of our shots came from in the end we were going to the south of spain so we all think great it's going to be sunny you know margaritas and we just had the worst weather there was in terms of downpours rain flooding we weren't expecting that at all and we learned the hard way that actually some of the camera traps um weren't 100 weatherproof so with the consistent amount of rain that was falling with the the water was pooling inside the camera traps and that was basically meaning that the electronics were shorting and we were getting loads of false triggers the cards were filling up in 20 minutes the weather was the biggest challenge there was two incredible you know real amazing moments on that shoot the first time was actually when we saw our first links with our own eyes because we weren't expecting that at all you know we'd gone out there expecting to camera trap but actually whilst we were setting up the camera traps this male who i think had obviously been watching us the whole time and he essentially decided to show himself to us and he showed up a few times he was so relaxed and he maybe came 15 20 meters away kind of sat and observed us the other really exciting moment was when we had set the camera traps up in a few urban areas and we got our first shot of the links using the underpasses that came after weeks and weeks of the camera traps not working and that actually was the day before i was due to fly home um after setting up the camera tracks the last time so it was really encouraging that we got that shot i think it was the morale boost we all needed at the time i had one privileged moment which i think i'll remember for the rest of my life where i was out by myself checking the camera traps you know you just get that six that sixth sense you don't know what it is but for some reason you turn around and i i did i turned around and he was just sat up on a rock behind me just kind of watching me doing what i was doing you know we're just kind of looking at each other this this amazing moment where we were just essentially just two equals just two animals in the same place at the same time there was no fear there was just acceptance on both sides and it was this really magical moment and um i was kind of torn between just really wanting to appreciate that moment and then thinking i really need to phone the camera operator and get him here so that he can actually film film the cat so i appreciated it for like five minutes and then i phoned him um it just takes one of those animals you know one animal like that on a shoot and it makes or breaks it you know if he if he hadn't been there we would have been trying to do it all completely differently with camera traps and it would have been a lot harder but because he don't know was because of his character he was bold he was confident he was trusting um it completely changed the shoot for us those moments meant that we decided to shift the focus from camera traps into actually getting some long lens footage and then it just turned into this beast you make a plan and then you expect none of that to happen and then you have another plan because inevitably wildlife doesn't read off a script and it doesn't do always what it's supposed to do on time and we live in such changing times now with climate change we went with an idea of a basic idea what we wanted and then like i said it just grew and grew and grew and it turned into a much bigger project but it paid off more than we could have hoped the comeback of the iberian links from literally the brink of extinction is one of the greatest conservation success stories there are certainly in europe it's really important and natural history programmes for us to also celebrate um conservation success stories i think there are a lot of bad news stories and it's really important that we inform people about those as well because you know every day that goes past we're losing biodiversity we are losing species trees are being felt but also with every day that goes past there are people doing amazing work and species are being pulled back from the brink of extinction and i think we we wanted to highlight that positive news stories because i think that can also be really inspiring to an audience in the european landscape there is a place for big cats for large predators animals that have maybe been feared or been heavily persecuted in the past and that we can co-exist it is down to the work that's done day in day out and without that there wouldn't be a future for the iberian links i would say i personally learnt or was reminded how resilient nature is if we give it a helping hand and we give an opportunity i know i became so personally invested in the in this particular project and in the links as well and in the area we're working with we can make positive changes and we can bring species back from the brink of [Music] extinction [Music] you

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 157,596

Keywords: bbc documentary, bbc, bbcearth, bbc earth, david attenborough, nature documentary, planet earth, natural history, behind the scenes, seven worlds one planet, endangered species, bbc documentary animals, iberian lynx documentary, iberian lynx endangered, iberian lynx

Id: YjPHR2uHbds

Length: 8min 26sec (506 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 27 2021