Back from the Brink: Iberian Lynx Population Rises to Over 1,000

An Iberian lynx runs after being released in Villafranca de Cordoba, southern Spain December 14, 2009. (Reuters)
An Iberian lynx runs after being released in Villafranca de Cordoba, southern Spain December 14, 2009. (Reuters)
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Back from the Brink: Iberian Lynx Population Rises to Over 1,000

An Iberian lynx runs after being released in Villafranca de Cordoba, southern Spain December 14, 2009. (Reuters)
An Iberian lynx runs after being released in Villafranca de Cordoba, southern Spain December 14, 2009. (Reuters)

The Iberian lynx population in Portugal and Spain rose above 1,000 last year after 414 cubs were born under a joint breeding program, in a major leap towards conserving the endangered species, Spain's Environment Ministry said on Friday.

The initiative was launched in 2002 when the number of Iberian lynx, a wild cat native to the Iberian Peninsula, plunged to just 94 in Spain and none in Portugal, due to farming, poaching and road accidents.

By the end of last year there were 1,111 Iberian lynx living in the wild in the region, including 239 breeding females, the ministry said in a statement. The number was a record high since monitoring of the species began, it said.

“With a 30% increase from 2019, this demographic curve allows us to be optimistic and to draw scenarios that distance the big Iberian feline from critical risk of extinction,” the ministry said.

In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded the threat level for the Iberian lynx, a spotted nocturnal wild cat distinguished by its beard and ear tufts, to “Endangered” from “Critically Endangered”, which the ministry said was thanks to the ongoing conservation efforts.

The World Wildlife Fund, a partner in the program, said the data was encouraging.

“This is a great success for conservation in Spain and the world. Few species are able to escape from such a critical situation as the Iberian lynx has been in,” said WWF Spain's chief Juan Carlos del Olmo.

In order to be classified as non-endangered, the Iberian lynx population would need to be above at least 3,000, including 750 breeding females, the WWF said.

Del Olmo said this could be achieved by 2040, but that much still needed to be done to eradicate threats to the Iberian lynx, such as road accidents and hunting, and to improve prosecution rates for killing lynx.



Germany Granted Citizenship to a Record Number of People in 2024, Led by Syrians 

People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Germany Granted Citizenship to a Record Number of People in 2024, Led by Syrians 

People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk at the promenade by the river Rhine with the skyline in the background including the Rheinturm in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Germany granted citizenship to a record 291,955 people last year, a 46% increase from 2023, with Syrians making up the largest group, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Office on Tuesday.

Reforms in the citizenship law contributed to the jump, the office said. Last June Germany reduced its residency requirement for naturalization from eight years to five and even three in special cases.

Many Syrians who arrived as refugees during 2015 and 2016 when former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany's borders to hundreds of thousands fleeing war and persecution in the Middle East became eligible for naturalization during 2024.

As a result, they made up the largest group of new citizens, accounting for 28% of all naturalizations, or 83,150 people, a 10.1% increase. They were followed by Turks, Iraqis, Russians, and Afghans, who represented 8%, 5%, 4%, and 3% of the total, respectively.

Russians saw the largest percentage increase in naturalizations, with the number rising to 12,980 in 2024 from 1,995 the previous year. The number of Turks taking German citizenship more than doubled to 22,525.

The new citizenship law also allows individuals to retain their original citizenship while acquiring German nationality, enabling tens of thousands of Turkish citizens — many of whom, or whose ancestors, came to Germany as guest workers in the 1960s and 1970s — to become naturalized.

However, Germany's new coalition government of the conservatives and Social Democrats plans to roll back some of these measures and reinstate a minimum waiting period of five years for citizenship.

The conservatives have said citizenship should come at the end of a period of integration, not "jump-start" it, and fear shorter wait times to become a German citizen may drive increased migration and public resentment.