Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis): Facts, Habitat and Diet

What does a Canada lynx look like?

The Canada lynx is a lean, long-legged cat with a short body, a short tail and a small head framed by a thick ruff of fur on the cheeks. Its hind legs are longer than its front legs, so the back slopes down toward the shoulders and the cat looks as if it is always walking slightly downhill.

The coat is long and dense, usually yellowish-brown or grayish with a frosted, grizzled look in winter, and it has few or faint spots. The underparts are paler. Triangular ears end in black tufts about 4 cm (1.6 in) long, and the backs of the ears are brown with a pale gray patch. The stubby tail ends in a tip that is completely black, all the way around.

The most striking features are the paws. They are very wide and covered with long, dense fur, and the toes can spread so that each paw is up to about 10 cm (4 in) across. These natural snowshoes let a lynx walk on soft snow that would bog down a bobcat or a coyote. For more on its distinctive head, see why do lynx have ear tufts?

How big is a Canada lynx?

Despite its leggy appearance, the Canada lynx is only about two to three times the weight of a large house cat.

Males are larger and heavier than females. Unusually large males of around 20 kg (44 lb) have been reported, but they are exceptional. The Canada lynx is about the same weight as the bobcat and clearly smaller than the Eurasian lynx of Europe and Asia.

Habitat and range

The Canada lynx lives mainly in the boreal forest, the vast belt of spruce, fir, pine, birch and aspen that stretches across Alaska and Canada from the Yukon to Labrador and Newfoundland. Its range closely matches that of its main prey, the snowshoe hare. It prefers dense young forest with plenty of cover and long, snowy winters, and it generally avoids open country.

In the contiguous United States, lynx live at the southern edge of the boreal forest and in high mountain forests. Resident populations occur in northern Maine, northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Montana and nearby Idaho, northern Washington and the Greater Yellowstone area. Colorado, where the lynx had died out by the 1970s, has a population descended from 218 lynx released between 1999 and 2006.

Lynx occasionally wander far outside their usual range, especially after hare numbers crash. Young animals have dispersed more than 1,000 km (620 mi), and the species has been recorded at elevations up to about 4,300 m (14,100 ft).

What does a Canada lynx eat?

The Canada lynx is a carnivore and a true specialist. Snowshoe hares usually make up most of its diet, between about 35% and 97% depending on the season and the year. A lynx needs roughly one hare every two days to meet its energy needs.

When hares are scarce, lynx turn to other prey, including red squirrels, grouse, ptarmigan, voles, mice and ducks, and occasionally young deer or caribou. They also scavenge carcasses of hoofed animals killed by cold, predators or vehicles. In summer and fall they eat a wider range of small mammals than in winter.

Lynx hunt mostly at dusk and at night, when hares are active. They either stalk slowly or wait in “ambush beds” beside hare trails, then pounce or chase over a few bounds and kill with a bite to the head, throat or neck. A study in the Yukon found that lynx succeeded in about 29% of their hare chases. Mothers and their almost-grown kittens sometimes hunt together, spreading out in a line to flush hares.

The lynx and hare cycle

In Alaska and much of Canada, snowshoe hare populations rise and crash roughly every 8–11 years. Lynx follow them closely: when hares are abundant, more lynx kittens survive and lynx numbers climb, and when hares crash, lynx starve, roam widely and stop breeding. Lynx populations can swing between three and seventeen times their lowest numbers over one cycle.

This relationship was first documented through more than two centuries of fur records kept by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and it remains one of the most famous predator-prey cycles in ecology. The full story is in why do lynx numbers rise and fall?

Behavior

Canada lynx are mostly solitary and active at night, although they are sometimes seen by day. Adults of the same sex usually avoid each other, while the ranges of males and females often overlap. Home ranges vary enormously, from under 10 km² (4 sq mi) to several hundred square kilometers, and they expand when hares are scarce. Lynx mark their ranges with urine and feces on snow, stumps and other prominent spots.

Although they hunt on the ground, lynx are agile climbers and often escape up trees. They are also strong swimmers; one lynx was recorded swimming about 3.2 km (2 mi) across the Yukon River. In late winter they become vocal, with loud yowls and wails during the mating season.

Reproduction and kittens

Mating takes place over about a month from March to early April. After a gestation of about 8–10 weeks, the female gives birth in a sheltered den under fallen trees, tangled roots or thick brush, mostly in May and June.

Litters typically contain 2–4 kittens, but the number ranges from 1 to 8 and depends strongly on hare numbers. Newborns weigh about 175–235 g (6–8 oz) and are blind for about two weeks. They start eating meat at about a month old, are weaned by about three months, and stay with their mother through their first winter, leaving at around ten months old. Females can breed at about one year when food is plentiful, while males usually breed from two or three years.

Young female lynx often settle near their mothers, while young males move farther away. In hare crash years, kitten survival can drop close to zero, and many females skip breeding entirely.

Lifespan, predators and threats

Most wild Canada lynx live less than ten years, but individuals of about 14–16 years have been recorded in the wild. In captivity they have lived to about 26–27 years.

Adult lynx have few natural enemies, but they can be killed by cougars, gray wolves, coyotes and fishers; in northern Maine, fishers were a leading cause of lynx deaths. Starvation is common when hares are scarce. People affect lynx mainly through habitat loss and fragmentation, logging that removes dense cover, roads, climate change that reduces deep snow, and trapping. In the northeast, eastern coyotes compete with lynx for hares, and lynx occasionally hybridize with bobcats along the southern edge of their range.

Conservation status

The Canada lynx is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, with a stable population trend. It remains common across most of Alaska and Canada, where it is legally trapped for fur under seasons and quotas. International trade in its fur is monitored under Appendix II of CITES.

The southern edge of the range is more vulnerable. In 2000 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Canada lynx in the contiguous United States as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, mainly because of habitat loss and a lack of protective forest plans. The species is also listed as endangered in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A 1989–1992 attempt to restore lynx to the Adirondacks of New York failed, while the Colorado reintroduction succeeded.

How scientists study Canada lynx

Because lynx are shy, nocturnal and spread thinly over huge forests, they are hard to count. Biologists follow their tracks in fresh snow, which also reveals where they hunt and rest. Lynx tracks are large for the cat’s weight, about 9–11 cm (3.5–4.5 in) across, and in soft snow the furry toe pads often look blurred.

Radio and GPS collars show how far individual lynx travel and how their ranges change through the hare cycle. Researchers also use trail cameras and “hair snares”, small rubbing pads baited with scents such as beaver castoreum and catnip oil. Lynx rub against them and leave hairs, whose DNA can identify individual animals and even reveal lynx-bobcat hybrids.

Canada lynx vs bobcat and other lynxes

The Canada lynx is one of four lynx species. It is often confused with the bobcat where the two meet, but it has longer ear tufts, bigger paws, a grayer coat and a fully black tail tip; see bobcat vs lynx for a side-by-side guide. Its nearest relatives are the larger Eurasian lynx and the Iberian lynx. Scientists think the Canada lynx descends from Eurasian lynx ancestors that crossed the Bering land bridge into North America within roughly the last 200,000 years, long after the ancestors of the bobcat.