A PHOTO of a young Iberian lynx playing with a flying mouse taken in Spain’s Ciudad Real has one Wildlife Photograph of the Year.
The incredible image, titled ‘Flying Rodent’, was captured by Josef Stefan, an Austrian photographer during a two-week stint in tracking a hide of Iberian lynx in Torre de Juan Abad in the Ciudad Real province.
Stefan’s award-winning photograph captures a young Iberian lynx playfully tossing its prey – a behavior typical for the species – and secured a record 85,971 votes, outperforming 24 other shortlisted images to win this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Nuveen People’s Choice Award.
For Stefan, taking the snap was ‘the pursuit of a dream that had been with me for years: encountering the Iberian lynx, one of the rarest and most endangered wild cats in the world’.
The species, native to Spain and Portugal, has returned from the brink of extinction.
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At its lowest point in 2002, there were just 94 lynx left in the wild, with only 25 females at reproductive age, and now thanks to intensive conversation efforts there is a healthy population of over 2,000.
Stefan’s image highlights the success of conservation efforts that have helped improve the species’ status from endangered to vulnerable.
The shot, alongside four other highly-commended photos, will be displayed at London’s Natural History Museum until 12 July 2026.
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