Colorado lynx numbers unknown as feds launch first review

Fifteen years after granting lynx endangered species protection, federal wildlife officials are launching a first review to find out how these elusive, quick-pawed predators are faring. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists say they'll rely on insights from Colorado, where state crews transplanted 218 lynx from Canada into the Rocky Mountains. But Colorado stopped monitoring lynx after 2010 and today cannot say whether they are thriving or on the slide. Colorado Parks and Wildlife "hasn't done any monitoring that would provide information one way or another on how lynx are doing," agency spokesman Joe Lewandow ski said in response to Denver Post queries. "There's no way to make an estimate. Radio collars, which gave biologists a way to monitor individual animals, died long ago." Colorado biologists do believe, however, that the mountains here can sustain a lynx population, he said...more

'Threatened' lynx trapped, shot

While their presence has been documented in some areas in recent years, no resident population has been confirmed of the reclusive cat, listed as "threatened" and protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. In 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for lynx that includes part of the Purcell Mountains in the far northeast corner of Boundary County. It was just outside that area where one was killed earlier this month. "Losing a lynx to trapping or any other cause is disheartening," said Jim Hayden, Fish and Game regional wildlife manager for the Panhandle region. "Fortunately these are very rare events." A North Idaho man, whose name was not immediately available, pleaded guilty in state court to mistakenly trapping and harvesting a lynx. He was fined $200 and ordered to pay $25 restitution to Idaho Fish and Game and $160 in court costs. The Boundary County Prosecutor's Office handled the case. The man told investigators he would have released the animal from the trap had he known it was a lynx. Because he could not see the animal's paws because of snow, and he believed it was a bobcat, he shot it. When he realized his error, he immediately reported the incident to the local conservation officer...more