Canada lynx

Canada lynx eat mostly snowshoe hares.

The lynx creeps up quietly. Then it jumps and pounces. When hares are hard to find, it catches squirrels and birds.

Canada lynx are carnivores, and they are snowshoe hare specialists. Hares make up most of what they eat: the IUCN Cat Specialist Group says 60 to 97 percent. A lynx catches anywhere from one hare every three days to three hares every two days.

The lynx hunts by sneaking up slowly or by waiting in a hidden spot, then making a short dash or a few big bounds. When hares are scarce, lynx eat more squirrels, grouse, mice and voles. Lynx are mostly active at night.

Snowshoe hares make up 60 to 97 percent of the diet, and the Cat Specialist Group says no other cat depends so heavily on a single prey species. Kill rates range from about one hare every three days to three hares every two days, depending on how many hares there are.

When hares are scarce, and in the more varied southern part of the range, lynx turn to red squirrels and other squirrels, grouse, voles and small birds; during hare lows squirrels can make up as much as 80 percent of the diet. Lynx usually stalk slowly and finish with a short chase, or bound from an ambush bed along the edge of dense thickets. Mothers with kittens may fan out and hunt together.

Lynx like to live alone.

When there are lots of hares, there are lots of lynx. When hares are few, lynx travel very far to find food.

Canada lynx live alone and each has its own home area. Something amazing happens to them about every ten years. Snowshoe hare numbers rise to a huge peak, then crash. Lynx numbers follow, rising and falling a year or two behind the hares.

When hares run short, many lynx leave home in search of food. Scientists have tracked lynx traveling up to 1,200 kilometers, about the distance from Chicago to New York City, in search of places with more hares.

Lynx are solitary. In the core range when hares are abundant, home ranges average about 10 to 35 square kilometers for females and 15 to 50 for males, but they range from 3 to more than 500 square kilometers and are larger in the south (IUCN Cat Specialist Group).

Snowshoe hares peak roughly every eight to eleven years, from as many as 2,300 per square kilometer down to 12, and lynx follow with a lag of one to two years; lynx density can differ up to 17-fold between highs and lows. As hares crash, lynx emigrate, sometimes hundreds of kilometers, with movements of up to 1,200 kilometers recorded. Wolves, wolverines, coyotes and other lynx have all been documented killing lynx.

There are still many lynx in the big northern forests.

But in some places farther south there are fewer. People are protecting their forests and keeping snowy places wild.

Worldwide, the Canada lynx is listed as Least Concern, because it lives across a huge area of Canada and Alaska. But farther south it has lost ground. In the lower 48 United States it is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and a draft recovery plan was released in 2023.

Forest loss, wildfires and winters with less snow can all mean fewer snowshoe hares, which means less food for lynx. Protecting big, connected forests helps both animals.

The IUCN assessed the Canada lynx as Least Concern in September 2024 (published 2025), citing its widespread boreal range and periodic abundance; the population trend is unknown. Lynx are legally trapped for fur in Alaska and most Canadian provinces and territories under regulated seasons and quotas, and the species is on CITES Appendix II.

In the south the picture differs. Lynx in the contiguous United States were listed as Threatened in 2000, and a draft recovery plan was released at the end of 2023. Threats named by the IUCN and the Cat Specialist Group include forest loss and fragmentation, declining snow cover, more frequent fires, accidental capture in traps set for other animals and possible competition with coyotes and bobcats.