Northern Lynx Facts

Location

People search for ‘Northern Lynx Facts’. Here they are! The page is accordingly deliberately short. The scientific name is Lynx lynx. This medium sized wildcat is also known as the Eurasian lynx and was originally called that but since the species is found across northern Asia, from Norway to Mongolia, it was decided that the name was inaccurate and therefore dropped in favour of Northern Lynx.

Appearance

It lives in the northern forests. This is a stocky cat with big, broad paws, long, powerful legs, a short tail with a black tip and the famous tufted ears of the lynx species.

The coat has faint spots all over and there are black and white facial markings.

Dr Morris speculates that the shortened tail is a consequence of the extreme cold that the cat faces during long northern winters. Tail signals are curtailed therefore but this cat uses its tufted ears to provide signals and its neck-ruff.

The lynx neck-ruff is as famous as the lynx-tipped ears. It has black and white markings and is fanned open when the cat hisses. It acts as an aggressive visual signal.

Prey

The cat has a wide diet out of necessity living as it does in a harsh environment but specialises in rabbits and hares, which make up most of its diet. The Northern Lynx also hunts small deer, chipmunks, rats, mice and lemmings. It has to cover wide areas to find prey, sometimes as vast as over 100 square miles (300 square kilometres).

Canada Lynx

The New World variant of the Northern Lynx is the Canada Lynx or Canadian Lynx (Lynx canadensis). Some experts believes it belongs to the same species. Others say it is a difference species as it is about half the size of the Eurasian type and does not have spotting on the body and a shorter tail.

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