CAT-TASTIC!

THE LYNX population has risen by over 300 cats in just a year. There are now 1,668 of them living across Spain and Portugal.

The figures for 2022 are in stark contrast to over two decades ago when there were less than 100 Iberian lynxes alive, with the species facing extinction.

Some 563 cubs were born last year helped by captive breeding centres. Most of the species (84%) are found in Spain with the rest in southern Portugal.

They have spread around large parts of mountainous Andalucia, while work was recently begun to reintroduce them to rural districts, near Lorca, inland Murcia.

European Union funding, through various Life projects, has played an important part in the running of the programme.

But the government minister said they were in fact descendants of ‘slaves imported by France’ and later ‘contract workers brought in by British traders’. He argued that the 1713 Utrecht treaty ‘reflected the values of the time’ but now ‘deprives our people of their inalienable right to self-determination’ over 300 years later.

Bossano said that ‘Spain’s position is in fundamental conflict’ with chapter 11 of the UN Charter on decolonisation. He said that Gibraltar would only approve an EU treaty that sees Frontex control its airport and sea port controls. Spain’s insistence that it would take over controls after that point meant ‘the treaty would be terminated’, he added. “We will never give up any of it, not one millimetre, not one grain of sand from our beaches, or our isthmus," he concluded.

Opinion Page 6

SCIENTISTS from around the globe took part in a twoday workshop on how to preserve the Windmill Hill Flats. Minister of the Environment John Cortes, who opened the summit at the university, called the military training area a ‘gem of Gibraltar’s environment’.

The workshop launched a 10-month research and conservation project funded by the UK’s Darwin Plus programme.

It is the first time in over 10 years Gibraltar has received UK cash for such a scheme. Windmill Hill is protected as part of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve.

The site, overlooking Europa Point, has plants and habitats that are unique to Gibraltar.

It is the main nesting site for the Barbary Partridge and an area where migrating songbirds usually visit.

Scientists will look at how they can reintroduce species like the Ocellated Lizard to the area.