It is a medium-sized wild cat characterized by long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts at the tips, and broad, snowshoe-like paws.

It ranges across Alaska, Canada and northern areas of the contiguous United States, where it predominantly inhabits dense boreal forests.

The Canada lynx waits for the hare on specific trails or in "ambush beds", then pounces on it and kills it by a bite on its head, throat or the nape of its neck.

It is regularly trapped for the international fur trade in most of Alaska and Canada but is protected in the southern half of its range due to threats such as habitat loss.

[10] In 2017, the Cat Specialist Group considered the Canada lynx a monotypic species, since it shows little morphological or genetic differences.

[12][13] According to a 2006 phylogenetic study, the ancestor of five extant felid lineages—Lynx, Leopardus, Puma, Felis and Prionailurus plus Otocolobus—arrived in North America after crossing the Bering Strait 8.5 to 8 million years ago (mya).

[15][16] The populations of the Eurasian lynx that reached North America 2.6 mya are believed to have initially settled in the southern half of the continent, as the northern part was covered by glaciers.

Acinonyx (Cheetah), Puma (cougar), Herpailurus (jaguarundi) Felis Prionailurus, Otocolobus The Canada lynx is a lean, medium-sized cat characterized by its long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts at the tips, and broad, snowshoe-like paws.

[2] The large, broad paws are covered in long, thick fur and can spread as wide as 10 cm (3.9 in) to move quickly and easily on soft snow.

Canada lynx tracks are generally larger than those of the bobcat; thicker fur may make the toe pads appear less prominent in the snow.

[29][30] The warm coat, wide paws and long legs serve as adaptations for the lynx to navigate and hunt efficiently in snow.

There are large spaces between the four canines and the rest of the teeth, and the second upper premolars are absent, to ensure the bite goes as deeply as possible into the prey.

[36] In February 2022, a picture of a large male Canada lynx was taken by a hunter in the southern Gros Ventre Range of Wyoming after his hounds treed the cat, making it the first confirmed sighting in the state since 2012.

[22] These lynxes are primarily solitary, with minimal social interaction except for the bond between mothers and female offspring, and the temporary association between individuals of opposite sexes during the mating season.

[28][42] Individuals of the same sex particularly tend to avoid each other, forming "intrasexual" territories—a social structure similar to that of bears, bobcats, cougars and mustelids.

[15] Factors such as the availability of prey (primarily snowshoe hare), the density of the lynxes and the topography of the habitat determine the shape and size of the home range.

[48][49] However, Canada lynxes are known to disperse over large distances, often thousands of kilometres, which might increase genetic variability in widely separated populations.

[43] A study in Alaska found that lynxes played a role in the decrease in populations of red fox, caribou and Dall's sheep when hares were very low in number.

[55][56][57][58] In northern Canada, the abundance of lynxes can be estimated from records maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company and the Canadian government since the 1730s.

[63] Before birth, the female prepares a maternal den, usually in very thick brush, and typically inside thickets of shrubs, trees or woody debris.

They leave the mother at around ten months, as the next breeding season begins, but they do not reach the full adult size until around two years of age.

Canada lynxes have been reported to live sixteen years in the wild, though most do not survive ten; in captivity they may make it to twenty-seven.

[15][22][68] The Canada lynx is known to host several parasites including Cylicospirura felineus, Taenia species, Toxocara cati, Toxascaris leonina and Troglostrongylus wilsoni.

[69][70] Canada lynxes could have played a role in the transmission of the zoonotic parasite Toxoplasma gondii to the Inuit in North America.

Canada lynx-bobcat hybrids have shown signs of reproductive success and do not appear to pose any significant threat to the parent species.

[1] On March 24, 2000, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued its Final Rule, which designated the Canada lynx a Threatened Species in 14 contiguous states.

[84] In January 2018, the USFWS declared that the Canada lynx no longer needed special protections in the United States following measures to preserve their populations, and their "Threatened" status may be revoked in the future.

[85] Various techniques have been employed to study Canada lynx populations; the data collected can provide useful information on the ecology and distribution of the species and pave the way for effective conservation measures.

Some of the released lynx dispersed into the surrounding states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

[89] Nineteen individuals were killed in traffic accidents, eight were mistakenly shot by bobcat hunters, and the remaining died from unknown causes or predation.