The Iberian lynx has recovered from fewer than 100 individuals to over 1,000 through intensive conservation action, demonstrating the welfare benefits achievable through dedicated species recovery programmes.
Iberian lynx recovery represents one of conservation's most remarkable welfare success stories — a species that was almost functionally extinct now has a viable and growing population. The welfare benefits of recovery are measured in thousands of individual animals living in natural conditions compared to the counterfactual of extinction. Current welfare challenges focus on road mortality for dispersing young lynx navigating human-dominated landscapes between reintroduction sites. Wildlife crossing infrastructure, reduced road speeds near lynx habitat, and continued reintroduction into historical range addresses ongoing welfare threats to an otherwise extraordinary recovery.