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Lynx
Management
Cyclic population lows naturally
limit the lynx harvest. However, harvest pressure on lynx has increased in the past 20-30 years
because of higher prices for pelts, use of snowmobiles, and improved access to
remote areas along roads and cut lines cleared through the bush.
In some areas, over-harvesting during a lynx population low could damage
the population's ability to increase again to former levels.
Since very few if any kittens survive to breeding age during a population
low, it is important that enough adults remain to repopulate suitable habitat,
including areas completely vacated by lynx.
Heavy harvesting in the 1980's caused concern about over-harvesting in
the NWT, and at the request of harvesters, studies were
undertaken to monitor the lynx populations.
The
NWT has developed a unique co-management system for wildlife
that uses the local knowledge of harvesters, elders, and other community
residents in conjunction with knowledge gained from scientific studies.
Wildlife co-management boards have been established where at least half
of the members are harvesters. These
boards work with government agencies to direct management actions and studies.
 Field
work continues to provide crucial information.
Harvesters work with biologists and Renewable Resource Officers to
monitor lynx populations and to track the lynx-hare cycles.
This is done by lynx carcass collections and analysis, by radio-collaring
and following lynx movements, and by annual monitoring of snowshoe hare levels.
Harvesters provide the lynx carcasses and biologists examine them to get
information about sex, age, physical condition, and reproduction.
Lynx are live-captured by biologists using a leg snare and the unharmed
lynx are equipped with a radio collar prior to release.
Each collar sends out a unique signal so that individual lynx movements
can be traced. This provides
information about home range size, habitat use, movement patterns, and survival
rates at different times of the cycle.
During
a population low, another management option for harvesters is to set aside
refuges, or unharvested areas. Lynx
in these refuges will return and help repopulate depleted areas when the food
supply improves. A refuge
should be at least 10 km from a trapline, but the minimum area required to
shelter lynx depends on habitat quality and food availability.
In some remote regions untrapped areas occur naturally.
The results of snowshoe hare surveys can be used to
help determine lynx population trends. Snowshoe hares experience natural
population cycles peaking approximately every 10 years and, as a result, lynx
experience similar cycles generally lagging 1 to 2 years behind those of the
hare. For example, surveys in 1997 showed that snowshoe hare densities
dropped in most areas to below 1/3 of the cycles peak levels, while Inuvik
showed an increase in density and is about 1/2 of the cycles peak levels.
Because of the vast area in which lynx can be found, not
all areas are at the same stage of the population cycle. When lynx populations
are increasing, up to 30-40% of lynx trapped should be kits. When females are in
poor condition, fewer breed, litters are smaller, and most kits do not survive
the winter. As a result, the proportion of kits in the harvest is low. In
1996/97, the proportion of kits in the harvest increased to 19% in the South
Slave and Deh Cho regions and to 24% in the Inuvik region.
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