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A rare native wild cat—the Canada lynx—has been confirmed in Vermont for the first time since 2018 from video recorded on August 17 in Rutland County, according to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
“Canada lynx are endangered in Vermont and threatened nationally,” said Brehan Furfey, wildlife biologist and furbearer project leader with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. “That makes any verifiable lynx sighting in our state important. This newest sighting is especially exciting because the cat was spotted in Rutland County, far south of most confirmed lynx reports in Vermont.”
Vermont is on the southernmost edge of the Canada lynx’s range. Most confirmed sightings are from the Northeast Kingdom, which supports the best climate, habitat and food sources for lynx in the state.
“Lynx are specially adapted to hunt snowshoe hares,” said Furfey. “Both species need young forest habitats and reliable snowpack to thrive. In Vermont the best combination of climate, habitat and enough hares to support lynx is in the Northeast Kingdom, and even that is on the low end compared to areas of New Hampshire and Maine where lynx are more common.”
Rutland county, where this lynx was seen walking along a road edge and caught on video by several members of the public, is not suitable habitat for large numbers of snowshoe hare or, by extension, lynx.
However, like much of Vermont, Rutland County sports plenty of well-connected wild landscapes that allow wildlife to move between different habitats. With that in mind, Furfey suspects this lynx was a male moving through the region looking to establish its own territory, a behavior called “dispersing.” Dispersing lynx can move quickly over long distances and it is entirely possible that this individual is no longer in Vermont.
“Although this lynx appears to be on the thinner side, its calm behavior around passing cars as reported by observers is not unusual for a dispersing individual,” said Furfey. “This lynx was probably just focused on finding food in an area where hares are not abundant and on avoiding competition with bobcats and fishers while passing through southern Vermont.”
Since 2016 the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has received over 160 reports of lynx, but only seven of these were confirmed. The most recent credible report was from Jericho in 2018.
“If you think you’re looking at a lynx the most helpful thing you can do is take a photo or video and send it to the Fish and Wildlife Department,” said Furfey. “The large majority of photographs our biologists receive are bobcats, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility that a Canada lynx will show up one day.”
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Categories: Outdoors
In May 2019, I had a Canada lynx pass through my yard, about 10 miles south of the Canadian border. It was definitely a Canada lynx and not the other kind. He grabbed a squirrel off a tree stump where I feed them, right outside my kitchen window where I was eating, and then trotted off with the squirrel in his mouth, wagging his bobby tail. I was too startled to think about grabbing my camera. He had the ear tips, the black-tipped tail, and he was grey not brown. My dad also had a mealtime encounter with a bobcat while working as a lumberjack in Oregon; he was sitting on a log eating his lunch and looked up to see the interested cat sharing his seat at the other end.
Some 25 years ago, my wife and I saw a lynx in Townsend, MA and a cougar flash in front of our car in Brookline, NH. Although neighbors separately reported a cougar sighting, public officials denied the possibility. 🤔
Outstanding……………………. I would love to see one, while in the woods !!
There’s a bit of a gaslight in this article towards those of us who’ve had repeated (three in two years) sightings of cougars — which ARE a big cat compared to lynx…which just aren’t as rare as this article wants us to believe. They are extremely shy and rarely seen unless crossing a road, or you live in a forest in winter and can find their tracks moving through…and I have… for years, every winter. Those aren’t rare sightings, they are regular, consistant sightings.
Rare sightings are in 70+ years — three sightings of two adult cougars, and one juvenile… in three years in Central Vermont… and F&G knows it. They don’t keep tabs because cougars would disrupt development in most areas of Vermont to protect their habitat…
But let’s go with the ‘oh shiney’ lynx that is only shy, not rare.
Agree 100%. Even the Adirondack region of NYS is now acknowledging that Cougars are documented within the area though the population is supposedly very low. Guess what, VT? If they’re in the Adirondacks & in southern Canada…….
But instead, despite this, the VT F & W alleges that ANY sighting is ALWAYS either a misidentification (as if people can’t tell the difference between a 25- or 40-pound wildcat and a 100 – 200 plus pound Cougar with a tail that drags the ground) or are but young transient males (at least that’s how the cats must “identify”) passing through & looking to hightail it out of the Green Mountains ASAP. Not to worry! And btw, pro-hikers have spotted this elusive species in the forests up in Woodford for years!!!!!
So as with our trustworthy politicians, what else are VT F & W lying about? Two words from a favorite 1980’s film: They’re baaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!