Missing lynx: Big fight to save folkloric symbol

TIRANA - In Albania, legend has it that staring into the almond-shaped eyes of the Balkan Lynx renders you blind.

But today, sightings of the rare wildcat have become so unlikely that conservationists have raised a red flag about its future.

Only about 40 of the animals still roam the mountains of Albania and neighboring Macedonia, according to estimates by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, which in 2015 classed the "Lynx lynx balcanicus" as critically endangered.