The Iberian Lynx, the world's most endangered cat species, could be extinct in 50 years to due climate change, DiscoveryNews.com reported.

Native to Southern Europe, the lynx is known as a kind of bobcat in America and a new study suggests the climate change will finish what a scarce food supply started.

The Iberian Lynx became endangered when its food supply was cut thin by an increase in humans hunting their main prey: rabbits. Current conservation efforts will not help the Lynx, Miguel Araújo said.

According to Araújo, of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain, a new plan is needed to save the endangered cat.

"We show that anticipated climate change will rapidly and severely decrease lynx abundance and probably lead to its extinction in the wild within 50 years, even with strong global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions," Araújo wrote in the study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The team of researchers used ecological models to anticipate the climate change and investigate the effects on food supply and conservation efforts. They found that the impending climate change will exceed the cat's ability to adapt or to move to a better climate. Current efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions will also not do anything to help the situation, the study said.

"In stark contrast, we also show that a carefully planned reintroduction program, accounting for the effects of climate change, prey abundance and habitat connectivity, could avert extinction of the lynx this century," the researchers concluded, essentially challenging lynx advocates and land managers to consider a new approach.

According to CBS News, there are about 250 Iberian Lynxes living in two communities in the wild and that number is down from the nine communities that existed in 1990.

"Current management efforts could be futile if they don't take into account the combined effects of climate change, land use and prey abundance on population dynamics of the Iberian lynx," lead author Dr. Damien Fordham said in a press release.