By Sara Wright
This winter has been the best tracking year I have had on this property in years. During the month of December, I tracked bobcat, lynx, snowshoe hares, rabbits, weasels and red foxes, never leaving my small oasis. I was also feeding turkeys twice a day. One day I was standing at my window wondering where my birds were (after shivering ice had reclaimed my paths) when, behold, a gorgeous lynx appeared two feet below me at this same window.
Stunned, I just stared. I have never had the privilege of seeing a lynx this close before. After identifying the magnificent wild cat by his long-tufted ears, inky black tail and lush furry feet, I was finally able to move. I grabbed the camera, but it was too late. The cat was already following the turkey trail into the woods. When the lynx came to a standstill, I noted longer back legs, another characteristic that differentiates a lynx from his relative, the bobcat. I should also mention that Lynx canadensis wore a plush dark creamy buff-colored coat splashed with a few pale markings. I just hoped the turkeys were not hiding nearby because these wild cats (like bobcats) can climb trees with ease although, supposedly, they don’t hunt there. Fortunately, the turkeys had moved on.
Canada Lynx live in the mountains, inhabiting the spruce/fir forested areas in western and northern Maine. Since snowshoe hare is their preferred winter food of choice (75%), they can most easily be tracked when this Lagomorph is in its upward cycle of abundance which dips every ten years or so. After the crash of the snowshoe hare population, lynx disappear. Bobcats, on the other hand, can be seen or tracked regularly in the winter because their diet is so varied.
When I first came to the mountains 40-plus years ago, I experienced regular cycles of abundance and attrition with respect to lynx and hares, but over the last 20 years I have noted the populations of hares expanding without seeing the tracks of one of its primary predators, the lynx, although bobcats were around. I assumed, because lynx need heavily forested areas, that logging was the culprit. Later, I learned that the loss of spruce and fir from logging was only part of the problem. Habitat loss is a major threat. It takes a long time for evergreen trees to return to areas that have been logged. Loss of fir, pine, and spruce sprouts spindly hardwoods in their wake.
Currently, the Canadian Lynx is threatened in Maine and is protected under the Endangered Species Act. In the rest of the lower 48 states this animal has all but disappeared. This news is not surprising in view of the animal’s need for uninterrupted expanses of conifer forest.
In December, when I tracked both bobcats and lynx, I was thrilled because normally I don’t see both in the same year and I had already glimpsed a bobcat. Immediately, I asked myself why I should suddenly have these wild cats ranging through such a small property. The only tentative hypothesis I could come up with is that there is still an abundance of evergreen forest cover because I have left the trees alone, but this idea remains purely speculative. Recently, my neighbor Megan texted me that she had seen tracks too, but I am not sure who made the prints. By the way, it’s easy to tell the difference between lynx and bobcat tracks. Both are round, but the former are huge and sometimes blurrier because of their thick furred paws!
Whatever the reason for this extraordinary sighting, the poignant memory of seeing just one lynx will live on as a gift that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
Photo Credit:
Keith Williams, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.