Conservationists will start using drone technology to track the world's most endangered cat as the species battles to survive in the world

The regional government in

Andalusia has signed a deal with a
drone company to develop a
prototype designed to boost
protection of the endangered cat in
the fight to reestablish the species in
the wild.
It is hoped that the drone scheme
will eventually replace the need for
the lynx to wear radio devices on
collars.
José Fiscal, Andalusia's regional
minister for the environment, signed
an agreement on Monday with
companies Enel Green Power España
and Microsensory.
The agreement, which will initially
last a year, is designed to "advance
the monitoring of lynx that have been
introduced into the wild".
Until now, lynx introduced into the
wild under a breeding programme
have been monitored using a VHF
device attached to a collar.
"These collars have hitherto provided
valuable information on the territory
and pathways used by individual
felines, but the tracking was
dependent on the terrain and
required daily monitoring by an
operator," said Fiscal.
Enel Green Power will provide a
budget of €20,000 so that
Microsensory can develop a specially
adapted drone to track and protect a
species whose population is growing
in the wild thanks to a huge effort by
conservationists.
Last month the return of the Iberian
lynx (Lynx Pardinus) to the wooded
hills of the Guadarrama valley
outside Madrid was confirmed by a
team from Madrid’s Complutense
University (UCM) thanks to DNA
analysis of scat samples.
Spain has made enormous efforts to
boost the wild population of the
Iberian lynx, the smaller cousin of
the Eurasian lynx, after it was almost
wiped out by the end of last century.
Threats including illegal hunting, a
loss of habitat and a disease that
wiped out their natural prey of
rabbits saw the population plummet
to just 94 animals in just two small
territorial pockets in Andalusia.
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But progressive captive breeding
programmes that saw creatures
released into the wild and a
concerted effort by authorities to
protect their natural habitat has seen
the numbers grow to 327 in the wild
by the end of 2014.
In recognition of the huge efforts
made, the Iberian lynx was
downgraded from a 'critically
endangered' species to 'endangered'
on the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red
List when it was updated in July.
But one of the biggest threats to the
lynx remains highways with 22
animals killed on the roads last year
alone.