The size of critical lynx habitat will increase from 1,841 square miles across three states to 39,000 square miles in six.
The expansion is due to a policy reconsideration because of allegations that Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie McDonald used her position to interfere with the way scientific findings were presented to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She resigned in 2007.
The lynx is classifed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened. Its range is listed as mainly in Maine, Montana, Wyoming and Washington with far fewer cats in Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin. A lynx study in Maine in 2002 documented 65 cats. In Minnesota from 2000-2006 there were 63 confirmed sightings of lynx.
In an article published by the National Wildlife Federation, it was noted that the total number of lynx in North America may not be known, “Amazingly, no one even knows where in this country lynx exist, let alone how many cats might be out there,” stated University of Montana wildlife biologist Scott Mills.
Lynx feed mainly on the snowshoe hare, and when the hare population in an area declines so does the number of lynx. Primarily the lynx is a threatened species because the population was severely reduced by overtrapping.
Image Credit: Bernard Landgraf, Wikimedia Commons
