An amateur photographer in southern Spain has captured breathtaking images of a rare white Iberian lynx, prompting scientists to investigate whether environmental factors may have influenced her unusual coat.
Ángel Hidalgo, who spotted the lynx near Jaén, described the animal on social media as the "white ghost of the Mediterranean forest." Hidalgo first glimpsed the lynx in a camera trap but spent weeks tracking it before finally photographing her in the early morning sun after a rainy night. "When I saw a 'white Iberian lynx' for the first time, with its snow-white winter coat and piercing eyes, I was transfixed," he said.
<social>https://www.instagram.com/p/DQXEvmLjLvK/</social>
A female lynx with a unique story
Researchers quickly identified the animal as a female named Satureja, born in 2021. Her coat originally had normal brown and black spots, but her pigmentation changed over time. Javier Salcedo, coordinator of the LIFE Lynx-Connect project, said the transformation is neither albinism nor leucism and may be linked to environmental exposure.
Satureja's unusual coloring has not affected her behavior. She continues to hunt normally and has successfully raised several litters. Scientists noted a similar case in the region, possibly involving a relative, whose coat shifted from brown to white and back again, suggesting a potential hypersensitivity to environmental factors.
The regional government in Andalusia plans to briefly capture Satureja to take samples and investigate the cause of her white coat.
The sighting is a reminder of the Iberian lynx's remarkable recovery. Once on the brink of extinction, conservation efforts in Spain and Portugal have helped the species rebound, and it was reclassified from "endangered" to "vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List last year, a rare conservation success story.