Have you ever seen an Iberian lynx?

These wild cats have spotted brown fur, pointy ears, and tufts of fur on their faces. They live in Spain and Portugal.

But once, the cool cats almost died out.

In 2001, there were only 62 adult Iberian lynx on the Iberian Peninsula. (That’s the piece of land where Spain and Portugal are.) Why were they disappearing?

These carnivores’ favorite food is the European rabbit. But those started disappearing too. Without rabbits, the lynx didn’t have much to eat. People cut down many trees. They built on the land. That pushed the lynx out.

But rescuers from all over started to help. Scientists. Landowners. Farmers. Gamekeepers. Hunters.

People bred more rabbits so lynx would have enough food. They created spaces for the cats to live and planted more trees. They try to keep lynx from being hit by cars or killed by hunters.

An organization called the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) works with local communities. It tells people how important the Iberian lynx is for the ecosystem.

Because of all this hard work, lynx are no longer at risk of extinction. More than 2,000 of the animals now live in the wild.

“It’s a really huge success,” says IUCN worker Craig Hilton-Taylor.

And God made the beasts of the Earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. — Genesis 1:25