Eurasian Lynx

This was an animal that I was looking forward to seeing at the Calgary Zoo. When I went to the Zoo with my youngest daughter on 3 November 2014, I spotted this one, right at the back of the enclosure. The metal bars around the enclosure make it difficult to get a decent shot and I didn’t do a very good job of missing the top one, resulting in the pale, blurry strip near the top.

This animal is also known as the European lynx, common lynx, the northern lynx, and the Siberian or Russian lynx. While its IUCN conservation status has been classified as "Least Concern", populations of Eurasian lynx have been reduced or extirpated from Western Europe, where it is now being reintroduced.

“Earlier this year (2014), the Calgary Zoo welcomed two new Eurasian lynx - a one year old brother and sister pair named Kazan and Anastasia, respectively. They arrived from Elmvale Zoo, Ontario, in December 2013 and were debuted on April 11th, 2014. The Eurasian lynx is the largest and tallest lynx species in the world (there are four), and their size allows them to hunt larger mammals, often feasting on deer. Due to habitat loss they no longer can be found in central Europe, but they reside in Siberian forests, Central Asia and East Asia, where their natural predators are wolves and occasionally wolverines.

Like most cats, Eurasian lynx tend to be nocturnal. They are a lot larger than Canadian lynx- and where Canadian lynx are silvery coloured, Eurasian lynx come in a variety of colours. An interesting fact about these lynx is that they have a tendency to ‘cache’ their food - they will hide it in small portions for safekeeping. Often after being fed, our keepers will find little bits of our lynx’s dinner hidden all around the enclosure!” From the Calgary Zoo.

www.calgaryzoo.com/keep-it-wild/meet-our-new-eurasian-lynx

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_lynx