IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Ląpez-Bao, J.V.; RodrĄguez, A.; Als, E. | |
| Field observation of two males following a female in the Iberian lynx (_Lynx pardinus_) during the mating season | |
| 2008 Mammal Biology (73): 404-406 | |
The Iberian lynx has been described as a solitary felid, where home ranges of adults of different sex overlap, but those of adults of the same sex are rather exclusive. Contacts between adult Iberian lynx of the same sex have been rarely recorded. The Iberian lynx mating system has been defined as being close to monogamy, although some tendency to polygyny was occasionally detected. In this paper, we report on a field observation of two Iberian lynx adult males following together an adult female during the mating season. Female F120 (7 years) was observed together with male M136 (8 years, body mass = 15.0 kg) and male M139 (3 years, body mass = 13.5 kg). Genetic analyses indicate that adult males were not first- or second-degree relatives (unpublished data). The two males were resident in this area since December 2005. The exclusive-overlap index indicated that 75% of male home ranges were used exclusively by one individual. F120 had lived in the study area for at least 5 years but, 5 days before the observation reported here, she was released into her home range after being one month in captivity recovering from several injuries. The observation was recorded on 16 February 2006 at 1:30 p.m. in Coto del Rey, Donana National Park (SW Iberian peninsula), an area inhabited by a lynx subpopulation which is normally composed of 3 lynx breeding territories. At the time of the observation, all lynx in the area were radiotracked, and the adult cohort was made of three males and three females. Once found by their radio-signals, all three lynx were followed visually from a distance of 500m. |
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