With a major snow storm forecast for today, I’m not too unhappy to spend a day not in the field but in front of a computer! The last 3 hours I was busy scanning through lots and lots of photos from the wildlife crossing structures, wolverine hairtrap sites, and texas gates (we try to find out which and how many animals cross the cattle guards/texas gates at the highway on and off ramps) .
We’ve been seeing lots of lynx tracks in the snow along the south side of the highway in the last few weeks. Thus it was not completely unexpected to see a lynx on one of the cameras, but the quality of the picture surprised me anyway. This one comes from an overpass, near Redearth Creek, it passed through only a few days ago. Lynx photos from crossing structures are rare and usually not very good, the infra-red cameras seem to have a hard time detecting them! They also seem to often just hop the fences or go straight through them instead of using the safe over- and underpasses (see photos in this previous post http://www.highwaywilding.org/blog/?p=33). So enjoy this beautiful picture!
No smiles from this beautiful lynx, as it crosses the highway heading North.
Anybody who’s been out recently knows how difficult the snow is to walk in, even with snowshoes, but this guy seems to float on top of it! It’s quite warm at zero degrees Celsius (upper right corner of the photo), so the snow surface is probably not all that supportive. It really shows just how well the lynx is adapted to this habitat.
Compare with the mule deer, below. Different day, slightly different location, so the snow conditions may be very different, but a look at the deer’s tiny feet shows one reason why winter is that much harder for these animals, than for lynx.
Trying hard not to get stuck in the heavy spring snow.
… it’s still snowing outside, so back to coffee and office work!
Mirjam
Hi -
I was driving down Smith-Dorrien on Friday evening and do believe I saw one of these guys (lynx? or another kind of similar looking cat) running across the road a ways in front of me. As I passed I looked over and the little guy was peering up over the snowbank to watch me go by. I don’t see wildcats there or anywhere, and feel like I shouldn’t have. Perhaps this is a concern? FYI anyway, I’m not sure who you are but someone should know.
Cheers,
Lucky you! I only ever see lynx on camera… It’s not unlikely it was a lynx, since bobcats (which are similar looking) don’t like snowy habitat very much. And cougars, the other big cats in the Rockies, are much larger and are not easily mistaken for a lynx, I’d say, especially if you saw the head. I’m glad you could catch a glimpse, it’s rare enough to see any large predator in the wild!
.
I’m not sure why you think it’s a concern. I’m not aware of any problems with lynx, they are too shy and small. A cougar could be a bit more of an issue, but since you were in your car you were safe anyway
WOW!!!!! Just love it! BEAUTIFUL! Keep up the awesome work!
I can’t stop looking at the lynx photo! Great blog. Bookmarked!
Gorgeous pictures. Keep up the good work!
Many years ago (maybe 1998) I took a field trip course offered from an organization from Banff to view and learn about the various highway crossings and other programs designed in particular for wolves….very interesting!
Take a look if you have a chance at the pictures caught with trail cameras here in the Middle East (I am living in Dubai) where David Stanton has an amazing program tracking the Arabian Leopard in Yemen, thought to be extinct for the last decade!!
http://www.yemenileopard.org/gallery/arabian-leopards-in-yemen.html
Enjoy your spring!!
thanks for your great work, enjoyed & appreciated!
This blog is fascinating! I love it! Hope you keep on with it..I’m following!
Found your blog very interesting – thanks for making these great entries!
I am a city dweller – could you explain what a hair trap is?
Hi Miriam
A hair trap traps hair! Haha. It looks as follows: We wrap a tree with barbed wire, to up to 3 metres above ground. At the top of the barbed wire we nail a frozen and skinned beaver carcass to the tree (sounds as nasty as it is!), as a bait, so wolverines have a reason to show up and climb the tree. As the animals climb up, the barbed wire rips out some hair from the animal, which we later collect. A camera is installed on a tree nearby, to confirm if the hair is likely from a wolverine or not, as many animals have similar looking hair. Analyzing hair samples is expensive, so we only want to do it for hair which are very likely wolverine.
The follicles of hair (but not the hair itself) are living cells that contain DNA. By collecting and analyzing DNA from as many individuals as possible, we can measure the impacts of the TransCanada Highway on the wolverine population in the mountain parks. The main concern is that the population may be split in a “North of Hwy” and “South of Hwy” sub-population, with not very much gene-flow (i.e. individuals that cross the highway and mate there). Wolverine density is low to begin with, thus any splitting of large, healthy populations into small isolated ones poses a great risk that these become inbred, and may ultimately go extinct.