‘This guy did not look like a bobcat’: Rare Canada lynx is captured on video in Vermont

A Canada lynx was spotted in Vermont for the first time since 2018 in a video recorded on Aug. 17 in Rutland County.

“Canada lynx are endangered in Vermont and threatened nationally,” Brehan Furfey, wildlife biologist and furbearer project leader with Vermont Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement. “That makes any verifiable lynx sighting in our state important. This newest sighting is especially exciting because the cat was spotted in Rutland County, far south of most confirmed lynx reports in Vermont.”

Gary Shattuck, a retired federal prosecutor, captured the video of the lynx at about 6:30 in the evening as it walked along the edge of a dirt road leading to Shattuck’s home of 50 years in Shrewsbury.

“I wasn’t too far from home when I noticed this large feline on the side of the road, walking in the same direction (I was driving),” Shattuck said. “I pulled up to it and couldn’t tell if it was a bobcat. I was concerned because it looked so thin.”

As it happened, Shattuck, 73, did not have his iPhone with him in the car, so he drove home to get it. When he returned, the lynx was still walking along the road and Shattuck began shooting the video from inside his car.

“I was curious, I have never been that close to an animal like that,” Shattuck said. “I would expect it to run off actually, so its behavior was a little strange.”

After shooting the video, Shattuck returned home and called the local game warden, getting voicemail. The next morning, a Sunday, Shattuck sent the video to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and heard back within a half hour via email, saying he would receive a call the next day.

Furfey called Shattuck on Monday to confirm he had captured a rare Canada lynx on his video, and that the animal’s behavior was not all that unusual for a young male passing through the area, nor was his appearance, which Shattuck feared was too thin.

“This guy did not look like a bobcat because he’s so thin,” Shattuck said. “I didn’t know if he was sick.”

Why are Canada lynx rare in Vermont

Vermont is on the southernmost edge of the Canada lynx’s range, Vermont Fish and Wildlife said in a news release, and most confirmed sightings in the state are from the relatively remote Northeast Kingdom, near the Canadian border.

“Lynx are specially adapted to hunt snowshoe hares,” Furfey said. “Both species (lynx and hare) need young forest habitats and reliable snowpack to thrive. In Vermont, the best combination of climate, habitat and enough hares to support lynx is in the Northeast Kingdom, and even that is on the low end compared to areas of New Hampshire and Maine, where lynx are more common.”

Rutland County, where Shattuck captured the lynx on video, is not a suitable habitat for large snowshoe hare, or by extension, lynx. Rutland County does have, however, plenty of well-connected wild landscapes that allow wildlife to move between different habitats.

Furfe suspects the lynx was a male moving through the region looking to establish its own territory, a behavior called “dispersing.” Dispersing lynx can cover a lot of ground quickly and it’s possible the lynx is no longer in Vermont, according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife.

“Although this lynx appears to be on the thinner side, its calm behavior around passing cars as reported by observers is not unusual for a dispersing individual,” Furfey said. “This lynx was probably just focused on finding food in an area where hares are not abundant and on avoiding competition with bobcats and fishers while passing through southern Vermont.”

What should you do if you think you see a lynx

Vermont Fish and Wildlife has received more than 160 reports of lynx since 2016, but only seven of those sightings were confirmed, with the most recent credible report coming from Jericho in 2018.

“If you think you’re looking at a lynx, the most helpful thing you can do is take a photo or video and send it to the Fish and Wildlife Department,” Furfey said. “The large majority of photographs our biologists receive are bobcats, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility that a Canada lynx will show up one day.”

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.