Lynx, wild horses and vultures return to eastern Spain in latest rewilding project

Once the world’s most endangered cat, the Iberian lynx can now be found across Spain and Portugal. Three or four of the animals will be released into the Iberian Highlands in the next year or two. Photograph: Staffan Widstrand/Rewilding Europe

Black vultures, lynx and wild horses are among the animals being reintroduced to eastern Spain with the launch of a rewilding project spanning 850,000 hectares (2.1m acres) in the Iberian highlands east of Madrid.

Rewilding Europe’s 20-year landscape recovery scheme, which covers an area more than five times the size of Greater London, aims to make the land wilder and more nature-friendly. The protected area is the southern part of the Iberian Chain, a mountain range that stretches 500km (300 miles) from the north-west of the country to the Mediterranean in the south-east.