Скачать или смотреть Worlds Rarest Wild Cat: Iberian Lynx, arriving at watering hole.

The worlds rarest cat is the Iberian Lynx ( Lynx pardinus ) and I had the rare priviledge of filming 5 individuals in the Andujar regIon of Andalucia , southern Spain, in the searing heat of a full blown Andalucian summer, where temeperatures reached 50 degrees centigrade. This young, and rather slim cat, making it's way to a spring to get a much needed drink, was unaware of my presence in a nearby tree for the first 5 minutes, but luckily when it eventually caught sight of me, it did not flee but thankfully just stared intensely at my bulk wedged into the bough of a pine tree. After a few more minutes it relaxed, as can be seeen iin the following clips , and started to preen it's beautiful fur.

When the cat appeared in the clearing around the spring, it caught me totally by suprise, as I was attempting to set up my tripod and camera a few metres high in a pine tree, that hunters had constructed a rough wooden chair in, in order to shoot the wild boar at night ( using night vision goggles) ,but I was in a real mess attempting to open and get the legs of my heavy tripod stable. I also had to deal with a couple of large 4" rusty nails that been carelessly left sticking through the timbers by the hunters, one of which was sticking in my left butt cheek, drawing blood, the second was a millimetre away from piercing my jeans and going into my thigh, all this was going on in 46 degree centigrade heat, adding to my woes I was unable to get my eye properly into the viewfinder of my camera, so I was basically focusing half blind, moving all over, with blood coming from a rusty nail in my butt, and no way of panning the camera smoothly because I was as far from stable and comfortable as London is from New Zealand.

I am amazed I managed to film what I did, and I most certainly will be returning to the spot later this year, but hopefully I will be settled and somewhat more prepared than the first time round.