Canada Lynx - Sierra Club BC
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Canada Lynx

CAN BE FOUND IN:

Canada Lynx 

Felis lynx 

Appearance

Lynx look like large house cats, but with a short tail and long ear tufts. They have grey fur in the winter and reddish brown fur in the summer. Lynx’s large feet allow them to travel over deep snow and they can spread out their toes, acting like snowshoes. 

Range & Habitat

Lynx are found in the boreal forests of North America. They prefer areas with old-growth forests, where there is a lot of undergrowth. 

Reciprocal rELATIONSHIPS

These beings are gifted with excellent patience, hearing, and night vision to hunt prey. Lynx will often wait silently near well-used trails, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey. In the winter, lynx eat mainly snowshoe hares. During the summer, lynx and snowshoe hares live in recently burned areas. This is because snowshoe hares can camouflage in with the saplings and debris. They also hunt grouse, voles, mice and squirrels. 

These beings are also susceptible to the effects of a changing climate. They rely on snowy, high-elevation areas to catch snowshoe hares. With decreasing snowpack, these predators are often forced farther up into the mountains, or they face starvation. Starvation is the greatest cause of death for the lynx, which occurs during a cycle when there is a crash in snowshoe hare populations. This is a natural cycle; Lynx numbers increase when the hare populations start to rebuild. 
 
One of the greatest threats to lynx populations is habitat fragmentation by humans.

sTATUS

COSEWIC: Not at Risk 
CDC: Yellow 

pHOTO cREDIT

More Information

If you belong to a First Nation with a story or piece of information not represented here and you would like to share more about this species, please email us at education@sierraclub.bc.ca

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