Iberian Lynx
Lynx pardinus
Some say that Gaudí had the soul of a sculptor, rather than an architect, and hence the intricacy of one of the few parts of La Sagrada Familia that he saw completed during his lifetime, the Nativity Façade, where more than 100 plants and animals are represented.
The Iberian Lynx is endemic to Spain and Portugal in the Iberian Peninsula, part of the only biodiversity hotspot in Europe: the Mediterranean Basin. The Lynx was the wild feline closest to extinction that only two decades ago. In 2002, only 94 individuals survived in two populations in southern Spain. Following the implementation of a recovery program, the population reached 1,365 individuals in 2021, 23% more than the previous year.
When I started painting in October 2023, the lynx was listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). y the time I finished this first collection of 8 illustrations in June 2024 and for the first time in a century, the lynx was no longer in danger.
The lynx is therefore, a symbol of the destruction of nature, but also of our ability to restor and protect ecosystems when we so want it.
To find out more about the symbology of the lynx, CLICK ON the yellow sandwiches bellow.
