Wild Cat Picture

Don, I had sent you a picture I took of what I think might be a lynx through your yahoo email account. I was hoping you could help me identify what I saw. I figure I'd contact you through here too since I'm not sure if you check your yahoo email as much as this chat board.

PAD,

How long ago did you send the picture? I just checked my yahoo account, and it's not there . . ? I'll check again later on as sometimes messages get hung up on a server somewhere.

I had sent it Monday night at 11:20PM. I can send it again if it didn't go through. It was a JPG picture.

PAD, why don't you post it onto Hunt101.com, then link it into a post here.

PAD,

I just checked my mailbox again and it hasn't come in. Try it again and make sure you're sending it to donmeredith@yahoo.com

I just sent it again. The first time I sent it I just clicked on your email address on your website. It didn't get bounced back yet either.

I'll post the picture on here with a little write up once I know for sure what it was.

PAD,

I received it this time, and sent you a message in reply.

It's a lynx.

So here's a bit of a story to go with the lynx...(and I'll warn you that I'm not the best story teller)

The picture was taken in Miramichi, New Brunswick on Dec 28 around 4:30PM. My father-in-law said he had seen what he thought was a bobcat in the area so off I went looking for it.

I took a walk around the area he had seen it in and there were quite a few tracks (lots of coyotes) and some without claw marks, meaning a cat was there. The tracks were not fresh and the snow had melted and froze to a hard crust so it was tough to tell whether they were from a bobcat or lynx. After not seeing anything I decided to stay still in a fairly open spot and just keep scanning the bush with my eyes to see if there was anything there. After about fifteen minutes, with camera in hand ready to shoot if I spotted something, I finally made eye contact with it. It was just sitting there staring right at me, maybe 75 feet or more away. Never even heard it walk in and I must have looked at that spot he was sitting more than a few times in those fifteen minutes. As soon as eye contact was made he got up and just started to walk away and this is the only picture I managed to get. Took me a second to snap out of being stunned to actually see him. It gave me chills knowing he was just sitting there watching me for who knows how long. Truly an amazing experience. I had only seen his face for a split second and can't remember how long the ear tufts were but remember seeing some.

My wife and I had gone out to try and find it the next few days but he seen us way before we got a good glimpse of him and we could just see a brownish thing moving away from us in the bush. The day after that there was no sign of anything when we tried to look for him. On the night we left to come back out west my brother-in-law tells us a trapper snared it and said it was an extra large male bobcat. That kind of confused me since I was not too sure it was a bobcat that I seen. So I got two sources, that I figure would know the answer, to look at the picture: my uncle who's a trapper and Don Meredith. My uncle said it was a lynx within a second of seeing the picture and I told him the trapper who got it said that it was an extra large bobcat. My uncle again said it's a lynx for sure and the trapper was probably saying that since there is no season for lynx in New Brunswick (hopefully the trapper will turn the pelt in). So to be sure that it was a lynx, I figure I would send it off to Don to be positive. Sure enough, Don said it was a lynx too. The picture may not be much but seeing a lynx in the bush for the first time is something I will never forget.

<img border=0 src="http://www3.telus.net/public/dumontmp/lynx.jpg" />

The picture was taken with a Cannon T70 35mm SLR and a 200mm zoom lens on 200 ISO film.

PAD,

That's a good story about your experience with the lynx. It reminds me of many years ago when I was doing biological research in what is now Kananaskis Country seeing several lynx over one summer. It was during a time in their population cycle when they were very numerous. On two occasions I was hiking up a trail and felt that something was watching me. Each time when I looked up slope, I saw a lynx looking down at me, like some house cat sitting on its haunches. Like your experience, once I made eye contact, they each slowly got up and moved on. I made a couple of other sightings from a vehicle that year -- so there were lots around. The following year no one saw any. So, the supply of hares must have run out.

Long ear-tufts are key to identifying the lynx, but your picture doesn't show the ears or face clearly. The black tip on the short tail and greyish tone of the fur with lack of distinctive dark spots on the sides of the animal and the dark spots on white just visible on the inside of the hind legs say lynx to me.

Well Don, I appreciate your help and skill in identifying the lynx. I wasn't sure what I saw and tried my best to look in books and on the internet but couldn't find anything specific. It's funny you mention that feeling like something is watching you. There have been countless times in the woods where it really felt like something was watching but I would never seen anything. On this occasion I managed to finally see something watching me. I still can't believe I actually saw a lynx (and got a picture!). My uncle said it took him a good 15 years of being in the woods before he ever saw one. Seeing the lynx just gives me a real good appreciation of wilderness, and strengthens my connection to nature, since like many I have to spend most of my time in "city life". Do you know any good books on wild cats in Canada? I know there are a few out there but you can't preview them online. Any suggestions you have would be great.

Before Christmas I was talking to a fellow down here that collars and tracks cougars with GPS collars. He has invited me to tag along sometime and was going to show me how to track them and see what they eat along with helping him download data from the collars. I don't think I'd be involved with actually helping collar them (with the danger involved) but I'm sure I will enjoy the experience.

Nice picture PAD. Your story reminds me of one occasion that happened a few years ago. I had a bear bait in the spring that was getting hit every day. I was in a ground blind about 100 yards from it, and a Lynx came out on the cutline between me and the bait and started walking away from me. I "meowed" as quiet and as high pitched as I could and to my surprise he turned around. He walked up to within 20 feet of me before he caught a scent of me. COOL animal !!!!!! Unfortunately I didn't have a camera but I'll never forget it.

So how many guys are thinking the same as I did.............have to start training the wifes house cat to be a hunter............... :lol :lol :rollin

Kod.

My two house cats are wimps. I bought one of those predator call sets from Sceery and they ran and hid under the bed. Lucky for them we keep them inside!

Anybody know of a good book on wild cats in Canada? I've found a few titles online but you can't see what's inside them. Any suggestions?

I would say thats a Lynx also. Too big for a Bobcat. Back in N.S. my rabbitt hounds have on occassion treed bobcats and they were all a darker grey with no spots at all. Smaller too, some only twice the size of a house cat.

A lynx's tail has a complete black tip all a round it not just on the top.

Looks like that tail could be tucked a little. I know bobcats aren't near as pretty as the Lynx. Coat looks to be in its prime too.
wildlifepark.gov.ns.ca/an...how=bobcat

wildlifepark.gov.ns.ca/an...?show=lynx

I never looked closely at the picture myself, however today I had me a look see. My verdict... This is definitely a bobcat. Look at the snow white fur on his back leg with the perfect black spotting, on the underside of his back leg.

No lynx ever gets that well marked nor that clear.

I'm with Don and Tuc...I say Lynx. I wish we could see the tufts so we would no for sure.|I

this is definatly a lynx. end of disscussion!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no question, this is a bobcat. Most Albertans have never seen a bobcat, and I have skinned many bobcats!

Lynx do not get perfect snow white fur on the undersides of their legs and belly. Lynx do not get perfect BLACK spots. Lynx bellies are never as clear as this cat is. This is a very large bobcat.

MARTY KNOWS





...children...

This is a bobcat for sure, Marty is right. The underbelly hair is too white to be lynx. The legs are also too short in comparison to the depth of the body to be a lynx.