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A little lynx TLC

Tawny cats increasingly spotted around Silverton

The Canada lynx – trapped, hunted and poisoned almost to the point of extinction in the late 1970s – today is one of the darlings in Colorado’s high-country forests.

Beginning in 1999, lynx trapped in Canada and Alaska were released in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Under the Endangered Species Act, the lynx is listed as threatened by the feds and endangered by Colorado. It may not be hunted or trapped.

The kid-glove treatment has resulted in many sightings of latter-generation lynx around Silverton reported to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Colorado Department of Transportation personnel.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has initiated a 10-year study in seven wilderness area in Southern Colorado to monitor the progress of the species.

More facts you may not have known about lynx:

From 1999 to through 2008, 218 lynx with radio collars to track them were released in Colorado.

Ideal lynx habitat is 8,000 feet in elevation and higher, which explains their presence around Silverton and Molas and Coal Bank passes.

They look bigger than they are because of their fur. Adults weigh only 20 to 30 pounds.

Breeding will occur in late winter and early spring, with a retreat to a den from late May into July when kittens are born. Females give birth to one to four kittens.

Enormous paws allow the lynx to scoot over snow to run down snowshoe hares, which account for 90 percent of their diet. They eat squirrels and birds as well.

daler@durangoherald.com



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