MADRID, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-nine Iberian lynxes who had lived in a breeding center in Portugal were moved to three similar facilities in Spain following the fires in the Algarve, southern Portugal on Thursday, organization Iberlince told Xinhua.

Iberlince is an organization focusing on the surveillance and monitoring of the areas where these animals live.

Lynx specimens will be held in southern Spain centers like El Acebuche (Huelva), La Olivilla (Jaen) and La Granadilla (Caceres).

In this way, they will be protected from the fires that have already destroyed more than 20,000 hectares of forest.

The animals will be carried in transport cages and will remain in Spain until their original home threatened by wildfire is ready to keep them again.

The lynx is the most emblematic animal of the Iberian Peninsular, for this species can only be found in Spain and Portugal currently.

Lynxes are under well conservation, as they were once at risk of extinction.

In fact, in 2013 there were only 300 lynxes, while in 2018 its population had increased to almost 600 thanks to the measures taken by both governments.