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  1. #1
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    Rare Lynx or Mountain Lion Tracks?

    Per Track Identification:
    Lynx

    Description: a medium-sized cat (15 to 30 pounds), with long legs and large feet. Color is mottled tawny, brown, black, and white. Ears have long black tufts of hair on their tips, and the lynx’s tail is short (4 to 5″) with a black tip. Ear tufts, long legs, and large feet are key to distinguishing lynx from bobcat.
    Lynx track

    Track Description: lynx usually walk in an alternating pattern (See Track Patterns), rarely dragging their feet or bodies. In deep snow the hind legs sink, making a “handle” on the print. The track pattern and print size (greater than 3.5″ long and wide) are similar to those of mountain lion; however, for lynx the straddle (measured between parallel lines along outside edges of two successive prints) is generally smaller (less than 9″), foot pads are usually obscured by dense hair, and tracks do not sink more than 8″ into snow. For both cats, the foot pad makes up nearly 1/2 of the entire print, and claw marks are almost always absent. Lynx trails tend to meander through the forest, unlike the straight line trails of coyotes and wolves.
    Click Here to learn more about the Lynx.


    Mountain Lion

    Mountain lion

    Lion tracks are very similar to those of lynx. Pattern is usually alternating (See Track Patterns); sometimes hind feet do not register directly on top of front -foot prints. Prints are as wide as or wider than long (greater than 3.3″). Toes and foot pads often register clearly in the snow (unlike lynx’s); and foot pads, which make up nearly 1/2 of the entire print, sometimes show lobes at front and rear of pads. Prints rarely show claws. Trails are mostly straight and direct, and may lead to trees, which lions climb.

    These tracks seem consistent with the Lynx description for straddle and image, except the meandering and feet dragging parts. They were pretty much linear along a trail for a quarter mile or so and somewhat clear which makes me think Mountain Lion. Can anyone confirm these as Lynx or Mountain Lion tracks? I've hiked, biked and skied this route hundreds of times.

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    Name:  Bobcat, Lynx or Mountain Lion? They're the size of a powder ski pole basket (3 to 3 1:2")..jpg
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    Last edited by Alpinord; 02-04-2014 at 02:33 PM.
    Best regards, Terry
    (Direct Contact is best vs PMs)

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  2. #2
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    Even rarer still is Option 3:

    Dr Jonathan Chase... wealthy, young, handsome. A man with the brightest of futures. A man with the darkest of pasts. From Africa's deepest recesses, to the rarefied peaks of Tibet, heir to his father's legacy and the world's darkest mysteries. Jonathan Chase, master of the secrets that divide man from animal, animal from man... Manimal!


  3. #3
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    The depth of the pad/toe prints and the drag marks make me lean towards a smallish cougar. Most lynx track I have a really difficult time discerning the toe outlines. These look a bit old - the sun from the previous couple of days has had a chance to melt the track a bit, creating more definition perhaps?

  4. #4
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    Where it goes right around the center tree, it almost looks like too much stride for a lynx?

    But the on the left side they're closer together?

    Where is this? Somewhere there's a mason Dixon line, with Lynx being Yankees and bobcats being rebs. Supposedly Wyoming is about as far south as lynx go.

  5. #5
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    Liger ..

  6. #6
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    Those are lion tracks. Lynx are more rounded, and their stride is more dynamic. I've seen a ton of lion tracks this year.
    Is it radix panax notoginseng? - splat
    This is like hanging yourself but the rope breaks. - DTM
    Dude Listen to mtm. He's a marriage counselor at burning man. - subtle plague

  7. #7
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    Had a city friend of mine use my house this week. He calls me all freaked out, says I have a bear around the house and the tracks were all over the place. Sends me a photo he took w his phone...cottontail rabbit.

  8. #8
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    NE of Durango. Lynx were reintroduced in the San Juans several years ago. A friend saw one a couple days ago west of Durango. There have been sightings at Pugatory and Telluride, though I would not be surprised if any of them were bobcats. FWIW, the tracks to the left in the tree shot are from our border collie.

    Yeah, I'm thinking lion. I've seen bear and bobcat and know mountain lions are around but never this apparent. Makes me wonder how often we've been watched and how close.
    Best regards, Terry
    (Direct Contact is best vs PMs)

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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alpinord View Post
    Makes me wonder how often we've been watched and how close.
    If you spend a lot of time where you saw those tracks, I would wager 'very often', and 'much closer than you'd be comfortable knowing'. Thankfully cougar are cowards, and the death-from-above is not a hunting/offensive tactic.
    Lynx, on the other hand, can be so obtuse that I've had to stop the pickup and shoo them off the road.

  10. #10
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    mtnlion. there are more than you think. saw lots of tracks in west texas last fall, and talked with a lot of people. apparently much, much more common than I imagined.

  11. #11
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    Cougar, we actually have one, a female, not far away using park property. When the govamint wildlife guy was asked why they don't get rid of it his reply was "she had not demonstrated bad behavior yet". Plenty of deer to munch on. Live and let live.

    They are closer than you think.
    watch out for snakes

  12. #12
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    Click image for larger version. 

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    Quote Originally Posted by BCMountainHound View Post
    If you spend a lot of time where you saw those tracks, I would wager 'very often', and 'much closer than you'd be comfortable knowing'. Thankfully cougar are cowards, and the death-from-above is not a hunting/offensive tactic.
    Lynx, on the other hand, can be so obtuse that I've had to stop the pickup and shoo them off the road.

    That's weird, went most of my life before seeing a bobcat in the wild. Allways tracks, but never a live one. Past few years bobcats have made a big comeback, and started to see them.

    Here's one in a high plains tree (CO/KS line)!

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by capulin overdrive View Post
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    That's weird, went most of my life before seeing a bobcat in the wild. Allways tracks, but never a live one. Past few years bobcats have made a big comeback, and started to see them.

    Here's one in a high plains tree (CO/KS line)!
    A bobcat is different than a mountain lion or a lynx. I've noticed pretty flat populations of bobcats in central colorado, but a huge increase in mountain lions. I've only seen lynx once, and that is when I participated in a DOW release out of South Fork awhile ago. They are amazing animals.
    Is it radix panax notoginseng? - splat
    This is like hanging yourself but the rope breaks. - DTM
    Dude Listen to mtm. He's a marriage counselor at burning man. - subtle plague

  14. #14
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    On this same route I almost ran into a bobcat on my bike. This was around the same time a bobcat ran in front of my car and another (could have been the same one) a year or so prior.

    It'd be cool to see a Lynx. I understood Lynx to be more skittish while bobcats not so much.

    Lynx sounds:

    Best regards, Terry
    (Direct Contact is best vs PMs)

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  15. #15
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    Did lynx ever actually range into the San Juans, or is this just the DOW being silly?

  16. #16
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    I agree with the habits of the bobcats - in BC they are usually only found in riparian habitats and in my experience they've been very skittish. Seen them live only a couple of times but have never been able to capture them on film. I've managed only one live cougar pic over the years.
    Lynx, however, follow the upland rabbit/hare and grouse populations, and some years I would see them on a weekly basis in and around cutblocks with 2+m tall regeneration. The hounds would get very excited when sniffing for rabbits and came across a cat scent.

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    This little kitty let me within 15ft
    Last edited by BCMountainHound; 02-04-2014 at 07:07 PM.

  17. #17
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    Our coyotes have had mange real bad for a few years, so that has probably helped the bobcat population.


    The cat in the pole is above a prairie dog town, but the one I would always see was in my sweet corn patch!

  18. #18
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    I know in the San Juans there was a reintroduction of Lynx near the road to South Mineral campground (Ice Lake trail). We saw one at dusk a few years ago coming across the gravel road. Unmistakable. Coolest thing ever.

  19. #19
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    In winters of 10-11 and 11-12 I saw a lynx with a radio collar in Telluride while riding up the Prospect Bowl lift(12). Both times were 100% lynx which was pretty cool. I;d agree and say that your tracks are cougar.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by BCMountainHound View Post
    The depth of the pad/toe prints and the drag marks make me lean towards a smallish cougar. Most lynx track I have a really difficult time discerning the toe outlines. These look a bit old - the sun from the previous couple of days has had a chance to melt the track a bit, creating more definition perhaps?
    BTW, these looked very fresh. They were heading down and veered off just above where we were heading when I had an 'out of nowhere' thought wondering what I'd do if a cougar attacked my border collie. The point the tracks veered off the trail was in the background relative to our dog when the thought occurred. Kinda strange.
    Best regards, Terry
    (Direct Contact is best vs PMs)

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  21. #21
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    buddy was sitting at the edge of the terrain park at Lake Louise taking photos one sunny Saturday afternoon & noticed a lynx was walking through a thin patch of trees in between all the jumps there, jibber kids everywhere just a few meters away. I don't doubt it when people say they are closer than you think. Thank fk they are usually shy, cats are evil fkers!

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by BCMountainHound View Post
    I agree with the habits of the bobcats - in BC they are usually only found in riparian habitats and in my experience they've been very skittish. Seen them live only a couple of times but have never been able to capture them on film.
    Except the one that set up camp in the Body Shop in Whistler a couple years back.

  23. #23
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    Lion.
    007

  24. #24
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    Mountain Lion

    I went for a walk last winter on a drizzly afternoon in between storms. The snow around the ponderosas was pattered by melting water. Overhanging boughs were engulfed in fog. Taiga, my dog, yanked on her leash. We climbed up a ravine to an outcropping above our house, where we could see clouds rushing down the Methow Valley, on the east side of Washington's North Cascades.

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by John_B View Post
    In winters of 10-11 and 11-12 I saw a lynx with a radio collar in Telluride while riding up the Prospect Bowl lift(12). Both times were 100% lynx which was pretty cool. I;d agree and say that your tracks are cougar.
    Good article!

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