The animals will arrive from Silves, in the Algarve, although currently the Porto district authority does not know how old the animals are, according to a source from the local council.

The municipality is building the “necessary facilities within the principles of animal welfare”, representing an investment of around “377 thousand euros, with an execution period of 120 days”, so it should be completed “in the middle of October,” said the source.

The location where it is being built in the Biological Park “is part of an area where other species that cohabit the Iberian lynx ecosystem are located, such as wild boar and roe deer, and the plant species existing there are also the most suitable for the animals in question”.

Built close to the discovery route of the Biological Park, “visitors will be able to access the observatory through a specific path, allowing the lynxes to be seen through a glass”, thus limiting “the animals’ exposure to outside noise”.

“There will also be no animal enclosure within twenty meters of all boundaries, in order to cause the least possible environmental stress for new park guests. The outer fence will have 506 square meters, respecting all directives in force”, indicates the municipality.

At the site under construction, the animals will have “good exposure to sunlight, with some shade caused by the existing vegetation”, and the “observatory will be built” so that there is “the least possible backlight effect”.

The census on the Iberian lynx carried out in 2022 indicates the existence of more than 1,600 specimens in the Iberian Peninsula, the vast majority (84.3%) in Spain, with Portugal having 261 individuals (15.7%).

According to data released on May 19, the 1,407 lynxes in Spain and the 261 in Portugal are distributed across 15 population centres, one of which is in Portugal.