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<\/p>\nThis story was originally published in January 2023.<\/p>\n
Do you have an outdoors photo or video to share? Send it to outdoors@bangordailynews.com and tell us, \u201cI consent to the BDN using my photo\/video.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0amazing assortment of incredible wild animals in Maine continues to thrill those who are fortunate to catch a glimpse of them.<\/p>\n
That was the case in Aroostook County at the home of Denyse and Alan Michaud of St. Agatha.<\/p>\n
The couple was bedazzled by the unexpected appearance of five beautiful Canada lynx, photos and video of which they were kind enough to share with Bangor Daily News readers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about 7 a.m.,\u201d Alan Michaud said. \u201cDenyse and I were having coffee as I was getting ready to go to work when I spotted them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynx are reclusive and prone to staying in the forests. They hunt snowshoe hares, which make up 75 percent of their diet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that seeing this many of them all together is rare,\u201d Alan Michaud said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking that it\u2019s the mother and her kittens. The first one is larger than the other four.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of us have never had the opportunity to see such a large group of lynx, but the dynamics are typical of lynx in the wild, according to Jennifer Vashon, Canada lynx and black bear biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears to be an adult female with four of her offspring,\u201d Vashon said. \u201cThis is within the normal realm of a family group\u2019s behavior. Kittens remain with their mother through the first 10 to 12 months of life. During this time, they are learning how to hunt and capture prey effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vashon explained that lynx may have up to five kittens in a litter, which means a group of four points to a good scenario for the animals in such cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cLitter size is strongly correlated with prey abundance,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen there are a lot of snowshoe hares, litters of four to five kittens are very common. Observations like this one, suggest (at least locally) high habitat quality and prey levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynx kittens, which are born in May, are able to travel with their mother by early July, and stay with her until the following spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe energetic needs of a family group are much higher and they are much more efficient at catching their prey when they hunt cooperatively as a family group,\u201d Vashon said. \u201cThe family unit begins to dissolve at the onset of the breeding season (late winter).\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, Vashon said the kittens have been known to hang out together when the family disperses, or even to rejoin their mother after having branched out on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough often thought of as solitary individuals, related lynx and especially related female lynx can be very tolerant of each other,\u201d Vashon said, citing an intensive telemetry study done many years ago in northern Maine.<\/p>\n
Vashon said that during the breeding season, in late February and March, there often are reports of two lynx together. They are typically a breeding pair, or two males engaged in some sort of territorial dispute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published in January 2023. Do you have an outdoors photo or video to share?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[129258,192,1757,28490,79,1148,6879],"class_list":{"0":"post-363675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-canada-lynx","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-evergreen","11":"tag-lynx","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-surprise","14":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}