Washington’s rarest large cat, and a creature we’ve long worked to protect and recover
Latest news: May 2023: Canada lynx have a lot of fans; now they need a healthy ecosystem
Washington is home to one of the last and largest Canada lynx (lynx canadensis) populations remaining in the United States, but these elusive felines face an uncertain future..
Lynx are among the most endangered felines in North America, with only a few hundred animals suspected to remain in the lower 48 states. In Washington, their range includes the North Cascades—primarily north of Lake Chelan and east of Ross Lake, including the Pasayten Wilderness and Loomis State Forest—as well as a few animals in the Kettle River Mountain Range and Selkirk Mountains.
Currently, biologists estimate that fewer than 50 Canada lynx remain in Washington, potentially only a few dozen individuals. Lynx inhabit Okanogan County with scattered individuals present in Chelan, Whatcom, Ferry and Pend Orielle counties. In late 2016, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife listed lynx as endangered in our state.
News on Canada Lynx
- May 2023: Canada lynx have a lot of fans; now they need a healthy ecosystem. Seattle Times
- March 2022: In bringing back wild lynx, Confederated Colville tribes hope to right historical wrongs and restore balance to wildlife on the landscape, Inlander
- November 2021: Colville Tribes and conservation partners relocate Canada lynx to Kettle Range
- November 2021: Canada lynx to keep species protections under legal deal, The Spokesman Review
- August 2021: The missing lynx, WSU Magazine
- May 2020: Climate Change And Dubious Science Threaten The Canada Lynx In U.S. Mountain Forests, Post Alley Seattle
- April 2020: Canada lynx disappearing from Washington state, WSU study
- April 2020: Lynx Numbers Are in Decline in the West, The New York Times
- June 2019: Wildfires and less snowpack threaten Washington’s remaining lynx
- March 2019: Rare Canada lynx photographed in North Cascades National Park
- November 2018: Restoring lynx habitat near Coxit Mountain and Loomis State Forest
- January 2018: Statement on proposal to delist Canada lynx
- August 2017: Working with First Nations to reduce lynx mortality
- April 2017: Loomis Forest protections helping sustain threatened lynx
- April 2021: Photographing the elusive, endangered lynx, WSU News
- September 2016: Lynx photographed in Washington’s Kettle Range
- September 2016: Court Orders Fish & Wildlife Service to Reexamine Lynx Critical Habitat
- More on lynx from WDFW
Learn about the Working for Wildlife Initiative in Okanogan County, which supports lynx recovery! Funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and coordinated by Conservation Northwest, this coalition of state, federal, tribal and nongovernmental interests works to protect wildlife habitat, working lands and natural heritage in the diverse landscape of the Okanogan Valley and Kettle River Mountain Range.
Protection status
In the lower 48 states, lynx are considered threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Their protection followed a petition and decade of support by Conservation Northwest and other conservation organizations. Lynx were often trapped for their valuable fur during the last century, and this practice continues in Canada.
Today, aggressive logging, road-building and development of lynx habitat has severely fragmented their living space. Snowmobile trails and roads pose problems for lynx because these packed-snow pathways give high-country access to cougar and coyote (which can eat lynx), and bobcat (which compete with lynx).
What we are doing
We’ve worked hard to ensure this magnificent animal continues to thrive and recover across the Pacific Northwest. With the help of thousands of Washingtonians, in 1999 we successfully protected the Loomis Forest as the Loomis Natural Resources Conservation Area, saving 25,000 acres of prime lynx habitat.
In 2000, with a perilously-low population and a decade after Conservation Northwest filed the original petition urging its protection, the Canada lynx was finally protected under the Endangered Species Act and listed as threatened in Washington. Now, Conservation Northwest is helping protect lynx in Washington in other ways as well, including redirecting logging outside of and connecting critical lynx habitat and reconnecting the North Cascades to the Kettle Range and Rocky Mountains.
Lynx facts
- Lynx are considered a boreal species. Lynx are specially adapted to the deep snows of northern forests, where their massive paws keep them afloat in their snowy open forest and boreal habitat.
- Smaller than a cougar but bigger than a bobcat, Canada lynx have silvery fur and black ear tufts. Their tails are shorter than a bobcat’s!
- Snowshoe hares, the lynx’s preferred food, thrive in the dense cover of a brushy forest understory. Lynx are adapted to the natural fire cycle of lodgepole pines. Fire opens the cones, which release seeds to create supple new shoots that feed snowshoe hares.
- Lynx need older forests, with plenty of snags, downed logs and woody cover for hunting and denning.
- Lynx are not particularly fast (it’s hard to hunt on snow!), so they have to be sneaky and lie in wait for their prey.