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Lynx in the NWT
The lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a member of the "felid" or cat family. It lives in boreal forests across North America. Within the NWT, lynx are found below the treeline and are most numerous in the southwest and in the Mackenzie Delta. Although other prey are eaten, lynx depend heavily on snowshoe hares to thrive. As a result, the lynx populations fluctuate with cycles of the snowshoe hare.
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Lynx are medium-sized animals, with the adults weighing an average of 10 kg for males and 8.5 kg for females. They appear somewhat larger than they are because of their long legs and long, thick fur. Some distinctive features of lynx are ear tufts, a ruff of fur around the face, a short black-tipped tail, snowshoe-like paws, and long legs. With their broad, well-furred paws, a necessary adaptation for chasing snowshoe hares in deep snow, lynx are particularly well suited to their northern environment. Their fur is a gray-brown mixture with paler gray or brown on the belly, legs, and feet. In late spring, their colour darkens to a reddish brown. |
Distribution
Adult lynx are solitary, except during the breeding season and when raising young. Each adult establishes a territory by marking rocks, trees, and stumps with its scent. Males generally use larger areas than females. The territories of lynx of different ages and sex often overlap, but adults of the same sex usually avoid each other. When hunting is good, this territory or "home range" is approximately 15 to 25 km2. When hares are scarce, lynx may expand this range to double or triple in size, or they may travel great distances in search of food. Lynx have been known to travel over 1000 km.
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Grey shaded area - Distribution of Lynx
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Behaviour
Lynx are good climbers but because of their preference for snowshoe hare they usually hunt on the ground. They are most active during the night and the twilight of dawn and dusk. Their sense of smell is poor, their hearing is good and their eyes are well adapted for hunting in low light. They also have excellent depth perception, which aids in capturing prey. Lynx hunt by searching places where hares are likely to live, flushing them into the open and overtaking them with a short burst of speed or by ambushing them along frequently used trails. Females with kittens often hunt cooperatively.
Habitat
Lynx are found where there are snowshoe hares. Lynx prefer diverse forest with stands of conifer, softwoods, or mature mixed-wood for cover, and shrubby areas for feeding. Old growth forests with little understory are not attractive to either species.
Wildfires and some types of logging improve lynx habitat by opening up areas of mature forest for new growth. Fifteen to 20 years after a fire, the new growth of deciduous shrubs, jackpine, and spruce attracts snowshoe hares, which makes it prime habitat for lynx. Fire can be particularly effective in creating a mixture of new growth areas, unburned bogs, and mature stands of trees. Logging in small strips or blocks will also provide areas of new growth, but clear-cut logging of large areas is not favourable for hares or lynx because it removes all cover and most of the food.
Reproduction
| The short breeding season of the lynx lasts from mid-March through to early April. Lynx become more social than usual during breeding and often make excursions outside of their home range. Gestation lasts about 9 weeks, and a litter of 2 to 5 kittens is born in late May or early June. The kittens' eyes open at 10 days. They grow rapidly, spending the summer near their den of tangled vegetation. Their first winter is spent learning to hunt with their mother. At the end of the winter, as the breeding season approaches, the family group breaks up and the young search for their own home ranges. |
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If female kittens are in good condition, they may breed during their first spring, but male kittens do not breed until the next year. Adult females in poor condition may breed but usually do not produce young. Kittens born during periods of hare scarcity have a very poor chance of surviving their first weeks of life.
Harvest Levels
Lynx are harvested from November 1 to March 15 in the NWT, with their fur becoming prime in late November and is at its highest quality during December and January. Trappers focus their efforts during this prime time to ensure only top quality pelts are available for sale at auction. Lynx are curious and relatively easy to capture. They follow regular routes and can be caught along them, especially in places such as portages between lakes.
Harvesters can assess their harvests to determine the status of the lynx population in their region, and can adjust harvest pressure accordingly. When the lynx population is increasing or high, up to 50% of the harvest will be kittens. In low periods there will be few or no kittens harvested. The sex ratio of the harvest may also show the stage of the population cycle. A harvest of more males than females suggests a high population level, while more females than males are usually caught during a low population level.
If harvesters find that lynx numbers are high or increasing, they can continue an unrestricted harvest, because enough young will survive to replace the animals harvested. If harvesters find that lynx numbers are decreasing or low, harvest pressure should be reduced until a year or two into the increase of the population. To reduce harvest pressure, harvesters are encouraged to harvest for a shorter season, from the onset of prime fur until the end of January. This results in harvesting lynx that may normally die from winter hardships, protects breeding animals, and ensures that only prime pelts are taken.
The value of lynx pelts fluctuates because fashion trends and the number of pelts available affect the fur industry. With changing supply and demand, highest prices for pelts often correspond with the low in the lynx cycle.
| Year |
Harvest |
Average price per pelt |
Total Value |
| 1992/1993 |
873 |
$66.25 |
$57,834 |
| 1993/1994 |
419 |
$90.64 |
$37,980 |
| 1994/1995 |
521 |
$81.20 |
$42,299 |
| 1995/1996 |
536 |
$98.39 |
$52,736 |
| 1996/1997 |
1108 |
$99.80 |
$110,571 |
| 1997/1998 |
1011 |
$90.51 |
$91,510 |
| 1998/1999 |
709 |
$71.15 |
$50,444 |
| 1999/2000 |
1491 |
$53.21 |
$79,343 |
| 2000/2001 |
1330 |
$82.05 |
$109,115 |
| 2001/2002 |
711 |
$119.56 |
$85,012 |
| 2002/2003 |
546 |
$152.90 |
$83,486 |
| 2003/2004 |
554 |
$175.80 |
$97,393 |
| 2004/2005 |
671 |
$163.00 |
$109,373 |
| 2005/2006 |
1,071 |
$148.00 |
$158,508 |
| 2006/2007 |
1,023 |
$144.00 |
$147,312 |
| 2007/2008 |
725 |
$237.00 |
$171,825 |
| 2008/2009 |
1,270 |
$85.00 |
$107,950 |
The lynx harvest is important to NWT fur harvesters located below the treeline. Harvesting lynx, as well as other furbearers, provides a cash income and enables aboriginal people to continue a lifestyle that has been a tradition in the North for thousands of years. NWT Lynx are harvested in compliance with the Agreement on International Humane Trap Standards. The NWT has committed to implementing these standards and enforcing the use of certified humane traps.
For more information on the types of humane traps used in the NWT, visit the Humane Trap Research and Development web-site.
Northwest Territories Trapping Regulations
Management
Cyclic population lows naturally limit the lynx harvest. However, harvest pressure on lynx has increased in the past 20-30 years because of higher prices for pelts, use of snowmobiles, and improved access to remote areas along roads and cut lines cleared through the bush. In some areas, over-harvesting during a lynx population low could damage the population's ability to increase again to former levels. Since very few if any kittens survive to breeding age during a population low, it is important that enough adults remain to repopulate suitable habitat, including areas completely vacated by lynx. Heavy harvesting in the 1980's caused concern about over-harvesting in the NWT, and at the request of harvesters, studies were undertaken to monitor the lynx populations.
The NWT has developed a unique co-management system for wildlife that uses the local knowledge of harvesters, elders, and other community residents in conjunction with knowledge gained from scientific studies. Wildlife co-management boards have been established where at least half of the members are harvesters. These boards work with government agencies to direct management actions and studies.
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Field work continues to provide crucial information. Harvesters work with biologists and Renewable Resource Officers to monitor lynx populations and to track the lynx-hare cycles. This is done by lynx carcass collections and analysis, by radio-collaring and following lynx movements, and by annual monitoring of snowshoe hare levels. Harvesters provide the lynx carcasses and biologists examine them to get information about sex, age, physical condition, and reproduction. Lynx are live-captured by biologists using a leg snare and the unharmed lynx are equipped with a radio collar prior to release. Each collar sends out a unique signal so that individual lynx movements can be traced. This provides information about home range size, habitat use, movement patterns, and survival rates at different times of the cycle. |
During a population low, another management option for harvesters is to set aside refuges, or unharvested areas. Lynx in these refuges will return and help repopulate depleted areas when the food supply improves. A refuge should be at least 10 km from a trapline, but the minimum area required to shelter lynx depends on habitat quality and food availability. In some remote regions untrapped areas occur naturally.
The results of snowshoe hare surveys can be used to help determine lynx population trends. Snowshoe hares experience natural population cycles peaking approximately every 10 years and, as a result, lynx experience similar cycles generally lagging 1 to 2 years behind those of the hare. For example, surveys in 1997 showed that snowshoe hare densities dropped in most areas to below 1/3 of the cycles peak levels, while Inuvik showed an increase in density and is about 1/2 of the cycles peak levels.
Because of the vast area in which lynx can be found, not all areas are at the same stage of the population cycle. When lynx populations are increasing, up to 30-40% of lynx trapped should be kits. When females are in poor condition, fewer breed, litters are smaller, and most kits do not survive the winter. As a result, the proportion of kits in the harvest is low. In 1996/97, the proportion of kits in the harvest increased to 19% in the South Slave and Deh Cho regions and to 24% in the Inuvik region.
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