The Canada Lynx and the Adirondacks
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| A Canada lynx staring stoically off into the distance |
The Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a small species of wild cat that has huge paws, long ears, an almost bearded-looking face, and a black nub of a tail that contrasts with its otherwise light fur. Their large paws allow them to walk on top of snow as snowshoes, and are very similar in this way to the paws of the snowshoe hare, the lynx’s primary diet. Lynx have a limited habitat due to their affinity for the cold and are confined to the northern states closest to the Canadian border and select mountainous regions like the Rockies and Cascades.
Lynx disappeared from the Adirondacks in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Their disappearance is closely linked to habitat destruction from logging, as well as direct hunting and trapping. Lynx need They used to live in different parts of New York State as well, but it is unknown if a New York lynx population was ever really fully independent of other common migratory Lynx traveling through the state. Now, there are very occasional reports of lynx in the state and many of these turn out to be bobcat sightings, another wild cat that exists throughout the United States. Some of these reports, however, definitively indicate that there are at least a few lynx that still travel through the state, but lynx are considered to have been wiped out from within the state because there are no known resident populations.
Between 1989 and 1992, an experimental program at SUNY ESF released eighty-three lynx captured in northwestern Canada back into northern NY. They were all collared with tracking devices and life-monitoring equipment and what these instruments found was surprising. The lynx traveled very far — to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Quebec, Ontario, and one was found in New Brunswick, 485 miles from its point of release, eight months later and two pounds heavier. There were reports of released lynx with litters, but they were never confirmed. In 1998-1999, the Wildlife Conservation Society of the Bronx Zoo surveyed the Adirondack’s High Peaks area trying to find lynx but didn't find any evidence of lynx in the area. It is generally considered that the SUNY ESF program had little, if any, long term effect on lynx populations in the state — nineteen were killed by cars, eight were shot by bobcat hunters, and others starved or were killed by predators. With this failure, lynx are still considered to have been extirpated from both Adirondack Park and the greater state.
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| Because you made it past that paragraph you get this cute lynx kitten break! |
Further reintroduction is unlikely. John Davis, leader of the Wildlands Network’s Carnivore Recovery Program, said “The warming climate and diminishing snowpack of future decades could pose future problems for the lynx, but I don’t think we should rule out the possibility of lynx recovery.” The prevalence of yet another hinderance makes Joe Racette, a DEC wildlife biologist, more doubtful: “Based upon current estimates of snowshoe-hare population density,” Racette said, “it is unlikely that there is sufficient prey base to support a viable population of Canadian lynx in the Adirondacks.”
Lynx are fully protected in the state of New York and are classified as a small game animal with laws protecting against hunting and trapping lynx, but have not been subject to reintroduction attempts since the 1992 ESF program.
Sources:
http://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/lynx-unlikely-to-return
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