My Missing Lynx

The Trailwatcher /G. George Ostrom

What do you do if you are a licensed local coyote trapper and find you've inadvertently snagged a "no-no" lynx?

John Fraley with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks says you notify them immediately and a biologist sets it free.

Doesn't happen often, four times in the last 10 years.

This topic came up because I somehow got to pondering that trapping dilemma while sipping pre-dinner brandy.

I'm among the wildlife nuts who feel the lynx may well be our most beautiful wild predator.

Lynx are bigger than a bobcat and they normally live at forested altitudes or latitudes where it is cold. They have big feet for chasing prey in the snow, beautiful silvery fur, short tail and ear tufts.

Although Montana has the best population of them in the lower 48, humans rarely see one because they are extremely shy.

I've never seen one in the wild, but Larry "Lucky" Wilson photographed a winter furred lynx on a deer carcass in the North Fork.

I have decided to check on how lynx are doing now, but first will go back to the situation 20 years ago:

Local governments and a Wildlife Federation biologist wanted the Fish and Game Department to close trapping because the lynx population is at a decades low.

Department Director K. L. Cool said, "No! No! No!"

The Montana Trappers Association said, "No! No! No!" and the Governor's Commissioners got out their rubbers stamp and added their, "No! No! No!"

It looked like the last of Montana's rare lynx.

But wait! Mr. Cool had a secret plan. He says state biologist Howard Hash will contact Canadian officials for permission to live trap 20 to 30 lynx and haul 'em down here so the Montana fur trapping business can keep rolling along.

Cool didn't give expense figures of his plan, but it has to be considerable. Even if each cat cost only 100 bucks and the trapper spent $10 catching one, it would still be a losing deal because the hide would bring in about $75.

The Commission and Mr. Cool had planned to set the 1990-91 lynx quota at 10 but backed off to five.

There was testimony from Hash that lowering or eliminating a quota would not stop lynx from being accidently caught in coyote traps.

Maybe it was that twisted logic that convinced Helena game managers to suggest the Canadian lynx transplant. (End of 1990 report)

As it turned out, public pressure killed the dumb idea and no lynx were brought from Canada.

Now in 2010, the big silvery pelted kitty is doing fine, according to Montana State, Glacier National Park biologists and the University of Montana.

The university teachers are having no problems radio tagging the lynx in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and there was success earlier up the Swan.

Local Wildlife Manager Jim Williams told me of a "wondrous time" when he got to see with lynx which were caught during one single day by biologists in the Purcell Mountains of Lincoln County.

He says they are like wolves, "They are where you see them."

Regarding the controversial battle over listing lynx as "endangered," most of those I talked to prefer leaving them in the less restrictive "threatened" category.

Some lynx have been successfully transplanted to Colorado. Males tend to wander much wider than females. One male roamed from the Swan into the Bob and onto the Blackfeet Reservation.

As to numbers?

No one really knows, but managers feel there is a healthy population out there.

Glacier Park biologist John Waller says their observations mostly involve tracks seen on snow and wildlife surveys.

A few live sightings are reported and there seem to be good numbers on the eastern front.

So! There are apparently a lot of these beautiful ghostly cats gliding silently across, around and through our local mountains; yet the odds for Ol' George seeing one don't look good … especially when the first 82 years haven't produced anything close.

Maybe I should go up the North Fork and spend the winter … with Larry Wilson.