Laserfiche WebLink
Species Profile for Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) <br />Species Profile <br />Environmental Conservation Online System <br />Page 1 of 5 <br />Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) <br />Kingdom: Animalia Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae <br />Listing Status: Threatened <br />Quick links: Federal Register Recovery Critical Habitat Conservation Plans <br />Petitions Life History Other Resources <br />General Information <br />The lynx is a medium-sized cat with long legs, large, well-furred paws, long tufts on the ears, and a short, black-tipped <br />tail. The winter pelage of the lynx is dense and has a grizzled appearance with grayish-brown mixed with buff or pale <br />brown fur on the back, and grayish-white or buff-white fur on the belly, legs and feet. Summer pelage of the lynx is <br />more reddish to gray-brown. Adult males average 10 kilograms (22 pounds) in weight and 85 centimeters (33.5 <br />inches) in length (head to tail), and females average 8.5 kilograms (19 pounds) and 82 centimeters (32 inches). The <br />lynx's long legs and large feet make it highly adapted for hunting in deep snow. The distribution of lynx in North <br />America is closely associated with the distribution of North American boreal forest. In Canada and Alaska, lynx inhabit <br />the classic boreal forest ecosystem known as the taiga. The range of lynx populations extends south from the classic <br />boreal forest zone into the subalpine forest of the western United States, and the boreal/hardwood forest ecotone in <br />the eastern United States. Forests with boreal features extend south into the contiguous United States along the <br />North Cascade and Rocky Mountain Ranges in the west, the western Great Lakes Region, and northern Maine. <br />Within these general forest types, lynx are most likely to persist in areas that receive deep snow and have high- <br />density populations of snowshoe hares, the principal prey of lynx. <br />States/US <br />Territories in <br />which the <br />Canada Lynx, <br />(Contiguous <br />U.S. DPS) is <br />known to or is <br />believed to <br />occur: <br />Colorado, <br />Idaho, Maine, <br />Michigan, <br />`mil4ke2ir0 -QACsEa•IS <br />http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=A073 4/12/2011 <br />Map of Species occurrence