What… is it threatened by changes in mean global temperature (wherever that is)? Sea-level rise? Ocean warming or acidification? No…
…it’s the rabbits.
Science Blog reports:
Climate change could drive the Iberian lynx ‒ the world’s most threatened cat – to extinction within 50 years, despite substantial ongoing conservation efforts, a new international study has found…
“That the numbers of Iberian lynx are currently increasing suggests that intensive management of habitat and rabbit populations have worked as effective short-term conservation strategies, but small population size means that the species is still threatened and susceptible to future population declines,” says Professor Barry Brook, Chair of Climate Science at the University of Adelaide. “This means that the species is extremely vulnerable to shifts in habitat quality or to changes in the abundance of their rabbit prey due to climate change.”
Species that are down to a few hundred members almost always finish the slide into wild extinction. Predators and prey have a long-standing boom-and-crash cycle. But rabbits are very adaptable and I’m betting on the rabbits, which means I’m also betting on the lynx.