The Iberian Lynx, one of the rarest cats in the world.

At the beginning of the 2000s only two isolated breeding populations remained in the world, located in southern Spain, and totaling about 100 adult animals, with only 25 breeding females. But after joint efforts of the Spanish national and regional administrations, different NGOs (like WWF) and the European Union (via the Life projects), the species has recovered from the brink of extinction and now it's numbers are consistently rising and lately estimated to be over a 1000 cats.
During 2021 summer I have spent a total of almost 3 weeks in a small hide in southern Spain trying to capture some unique and different images of the elusive cats, most days no cats showed up next to the hide but one night just as I was getting ready to leave the hide after another long day with no sighting, a cat came to drink from a water hole near my hide and after dark just a moment before my driver arrived to pick me up from the hide. I called him and asked him to approach slowly with the car lights and try to illuminate the cat in a creative way hoping the cat would stay. The cat was not bothered by the light ant kept drinking for a couple of minutes so I waited for him to raise his head up. I deliberately under exposed the image to create a dramatic and mysterious portrait which describes the essence of this creature in my eyes.