The Iberian wolf is extinct in Spain’s Andalusia: Report

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in news

Context:

The Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus), the species of gray wolf native to the Iberian Peninsula comprising Spain and Portugal, has been extinct in the historic region of Andalusia in the extreme south of Iberia since 2020.

Details:

Andalusia is an ‘autonomous territory’ of Spain and consists of eight provinces: Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga, and Seville.

Iberian wolf:

The Iberian wolf is currently distributed over most of the autonomous territories of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León and some areas of La Rioja, Madrid and northern Castilla La Stain.
The Iberian wolf, like other types of gray wolf, lives in packs that are territorial and hierarchical and led by a dominant breeding pair.
In Andalusia, it was mainly found in Sierra Morena which had good cover, prey base in the form of wild ungulates and a scarce asphalted road network as well as lack of other infrastructure.
They form the largest wolf population in Western Europe.

Iberian peninsula:

The Iberian Peninsula also known as Iberia is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defining the westernmost edge of Eurasia.
It is divided between Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprising most of the region, as well as Andorra, Gibraltar and a small part of Southern France.
With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and a population of roughly 53 million, it is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula.