Canada Lynx

1. What they did

This short section of Maine’s 2017 wildlife management report describes how the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) monitors Canada lynx, a federally threatened species and a state species of special concern.

• Snow track surveys. Biologists first checked for lynx by surveying tracks in winter snow along the Maine and Quebec border in the 1990s, then across most of northern and western Maine. Between 2003 and 2008 they surveyed 91 towns. Since 2015 they have been resurveying more than 90 towns in northern, western and eastern Maine to find which areas have lynx, from their tracks in the snow.
• First telemetry study (1999 to 2012). Near the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in northern Maine, the Department captured lynx and followed them with GPS or Very High Frequency (VHF) radio collars to learn which habitats they used and how large an area they needed.
• Second telemetry study (since fall 2016). Lynx are being fitted with GPS collars across the state to compare habitat use with the earlier study and to find denning sites, so that the number of young born each year can be estimated.

2. What they found

Population and habitat

• Maine has the largest lynx population in the lower 48 states, growing since the 1990s: more than 1,000 adults, and perhaps close to 2,000 when young are counted.
• Lynx are prey specialists that mostly eat snowshoe hare. Hare are most plentiful in young, dense spruce and fir forest.
• Clearcutting after a major insect outbreak in the 1980s led to dense regrowth of spruce and fir, which the report says created a record high amount of lynx habitat.
• People in northern Maine have been seeing lynx more often over the last 15 years. Lynx are described as calm and generally unconcerned by people, often staying long enough to be photographed.

Snow track surveys

• 2003 to 2008: lynx tracks were found in 43 of 91 towns (47%).
• Current survey, preliminary: lynx were found in 37 of 42 towns surveyed so far (88%), suggesting lynx now occupy more of the available habitat.

Telemetry

• 1999 to 2012: 191 lynx were captured and 85 were followed with collars. Lynx spent most of their time in regenerating spruce and fir clearcuts with some of the highest hare densities in Maine. A male shared his area with two to three females, and most adult females had kittens each year (litters of one to five).
• Since fall 2016: eight lynx collared, most along the southern edge of the lynx range. All eight set up home ranges, showing those areas support resident lynx. In spring 2017 two collared females each had two kittens.

3. What they concluded

• Natural and human disturbance of the spruce and fir forest has let snowshoe hare and lynx thrive in Maine.
• The Department planned to collar 10 more lynx in fall 2017 and to finish the snow track survey that winter, to map lynx across the state, work out the share of towns they live in, learn which forest conditions continue to support them, and update population estimates. The results are to be shared with forest managers and the public.

4. How tracking was or was not used

Snow tracking is the backbone of the Department’s lynx monitoring. Biologists surveyed towns in winter and recorded where lynx tracks were found. The share of areas with tracks, combined with lynx densities from telemetry, was used to estimate the state population. The report does not describe how tracks were told apart from those of bobcats, or how the surveys were laid out.

5. Tracker or observer certification

Not reported. The surveys were carried out by Department biologists; nothing is said about their tracking experience or how identifications were checked.

6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

• GPS and VHF radio collars to learn habitat use and home range size.
• GPS collars planned as a way to locate dens and count kittens born each year.

7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

• Commercial forest harvesting that produces dense regenerating spruce and fir can benefit lynx by supporting high snowshoe hare numbers.
• Management includes keeping hunting and trapping seasons for lynx closed, law enforcement, reducing accidental capture of lynx by trappers targeting other species, and sharing habitat information with private landowners.