Iberian lynx that helped save species from extinction dies aged 20

Aura, born when just 94 Iberian lynxes remained, dies in Spain at record age and leaves a phenomenal legacy'

A grumpy, strong-willed Iberian lynx called Aura that helped snatch her species from the jaws of extinction, and whose genes live on in more than 900 of the spotted and tufty-eared felines, has died in southern Spain at the record age of 20.

When Aura was born in Andalucia's Donana national park in 2002, there were a mere 94 Iberian lynxes on the peninsula. Decades of eradication efforts, together with a massive drop in rabbit numbers because of myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease - not to mention human encroachment - had left the animals on the brink of disappearing.