The Sad Story of a Rare Cat and Its Loyal Parasite

Tin our eyes, is a wildcat of unthreatening dimensions. It has tufted ears and a spotted coat. The ruff beneath its chin grows in two bunches, recalling the beards of the men of Byzantium. Its stubby, black-tipped tail makes you think it might have lost a more splendid appendage to a fire. The lynx is mostly solitary, and rarely seen. Its dens are found in forests and between boulders, in Europe, Asia, and North America. or ?—hunting little mammals. Another species, the Iberian lynx, was once the rarest cat on Earth: For a time, there were just 94. Today, more than 500 Iberian lynxes live in Portugal and Spain; bringing them back cost more than $76 million.