Lynx are Alaska’s wild cats with long, tufted ears, long legs, and exceptionally large feet that enable them to move easily in deep snow. Their coats are gray, streaked with black on their neck ruff,forehead, back, and legs. They also have a short tail with a unique black circle around its tip. Lynx usually weigh 13 to 30 pounds and stand 24 to 28 inches at the shoulder.
Lynx prey mainly on snowshoe hares. The lynx’s survival is tightly intermixed with that of the hare and, as a result, lynx populations follow the hare’s roughly 10-year cycle of abundance and decline. Lynx will also supplement their diet occasionally with caribou, fox, and birds.
Lynx are mostly solitary and nocturnal. Breeding occurs March through April with kittens born in May or June. The litter size averages two to four kittens born in a natural den such as a tree hollow or beneath roots.
