Spooky beauty:
The genetic anomaly testifies to the good progress of the Lynx pardinus conservation plans in the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula, after releases began in 2011 when the species was on the verge of extinction.
The white ghost of the Mediterranean forest. This is how Ángel Hidalgo, an amateur nature photographer, has described his latest find while reviewing the images from one of his photo-trapping cameras, placed in the depths of one of Jaén’s mountain ranges in southern Spain.
Hidalgo has managed to record an Iberian lynx with leucism, a genetic condition that causes a partial or total lack of pigmentation in its skin, although not in the eyes, as would occur in the case of albino animals.
According to local media ‘Ahora Jaén’, this unprecedented discovery took place on 22 October in the province of Jaén.
The place where this specimen of ‘Lynx pardinus’ has been recorded in the wild, as attested by the absence of a tracking collar, is kept secret. The Iberian lynx, despite the conservation efforts of the Spanish and Portuguese authorities, is still listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
It’s a sign. Of what I don’t know, but it is. There’s someone in that cat and it’s bringing us a message.
Also:
I don’t believe in certain coincidences bc that’s two rare animal sightings in a short time. https://t.co/hTtM5zBDtq pic.twitter.com/DW6nCBHW67
— Simply AJ aka Tom Bombadil (@AJpart2EW) October 30, 2025
As one wag said: “I don’t believe in certain coincidences bc that’s two rare animal sightings in a short time.”
My BFF and I were once in a very small town in central Pennsylvania during hunting season eating breakfast in a diner right out of a David Lynch fever dream. Suddenly everyone got up and ran to the window to watch an albino buck run through the town and disappear through the heavy fog hanging over the cemetery and disappear. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it. It wasn’t Halloween but I’ve often thought about it on this day.
Happy Halloween everyone.