The road linking the ancient capital of Toledo with the southern city of Cordoba would have cut straight through several protected areas, including the nocturnal cat’s last viable refuge in the Sierra Morena Mountain.
Environmentalists estimate that only 250 to 350 Iberian lynxes remain in the world, all of them in scattered groups in central and southern Spain. The new road would have trapped lynxes between two main highways, ecologists said, killing any chance of the animals spreading to new areas and recovering numbers.
Other threatened species — such as the imperial eagle, Iberian wolf and black stork — also would have suffered if the motorway had gone ahead, according to Spain’s environment ministry.
