The Canada lynx has a flared facial ruff, black ear tufts, and long hind legs which lend a slightly
stooped posture. The coat is reddish-brown to gray; the hairs are tipped with white which gives the fur
a frosted appearance. There is a rare pallid color phase which suggests partial albinism, known as the
blue lynx in the fur trade. The Canada lynx's large spreading feet act like snowshoes, and are very as
effective at supporting its weight on snow.
The female lynx will give birth to one to four kits
about two months after mating. The kits are born blind and helpless. They will nurse until they are
about three months old and will stay with their mother for about one year. Male Canada lynx have been
known to help feed their offspring. Sexual maturity comes at about eighteen to 24 months of age. In
the wild, lynx tend to live about 12 to 15 years. In captivity, they can live 20 to 25 years.
The lynxes show remarkable similarity of appearance compared to other related groups of
cats, and the Canada lynx is often treated as conspecific with the Eurasian lynx. However, the Canada
lynx is only half the size of the Eurasian lynx. Average size is 30 to 36 inches in length, 18 inches
in height, and 25 to 30 pounds in weight. While the Canada lynx is probably a descendant of a Eurasian
lynx ancestor which migrated into North America during one of the last two major glacial periods the
two should be considered separate species, as they now show marked adaptive differences for prey capture.
Whereas the larger Eurasian lynx preys mainly on ungulates, the Canada lynx relies almost exclusively
on snowshoe hares, and is uniquely adapted, both behaviorally and physiologically, to exploit a cyclic
prey base.
Among felid predator-prey relationships, there are none as closely tied
as that between the hare and the Canada lynx. The lynx-hare cycle was first discovered from harvest records
of the Hudson's Bay Company dating back to the 1800s. Numbers of snowshoe hares peak approximately every
ten years, and lynx numbers follow the same pattern with a short lag, typically one to two years. As
hares decline, fewer lynx breed, producing smaller litters with few, if any, surviving kits. As hares
increase, so does the lynx reproduction rates. While lynx will switch prey during periods when hares
are scarce, turning to small rodents, ground birds and, exceptionally, ungulates such as white-tailed
deer, caribou, and Dall sheep, lynx populations only reach high densities when supported by snowshoe
hares.
Lynx are distributed throughout the broad boreal forest belt of North America and south
into the American Rocky Mountains. The historic range is largely intact, although it has shrunk in the
south due to human settlement and forest clearance. Lynx will inhabit farming country, but only if it
is interrupted by sufficient areas of woodland. Lynx will travel long distances seeking out patches of
hare abundance. Snowshoe hares prefer new growth vegetation, such as after forest fire or logging, and
lynx may cluster in these areas.
