Fifteen years after granting lynx endangered species protection, federal wildlife officials are launching a first review to find out how these elusive, quick-pawed predators are faring.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists say they’ll rely on insights from Colorado, where state crews transplanted 218 lynx from Canada into the Rocky Mountains. But Colorado stopped monitoring lynx after 2010 and today cannot say whether they are thriving or on the slide.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife “hasn’t done any monitoring that would provide information one way or another on how lynx are doing,” agency spokesman Joe Lewandow ski said in response to Denver Post queries.
“There’s no way to make an estimate. Radio collars, which gave biologists a way to monitor individual animals, died long ago.”
Colorado biologists do believe, however, that the mountains here can sustain a lynx population, he said.
Monday, CPW officials announced a new 10-year “occupancy study” on 30-square-mile plots to find out whether lynx are increasing or decreasing. An initial two-year pilot phase will test methods.
Tuft-eared wildcats with large furry paws, lynx inhabit boreal forests in Canada and the United States that offer deep snow and abundant snowshoe hares, the lynx’s main prey. , lynx often decline.
Federal biologists contend lynx historically have been more rare in the southern Rockies, compared with northern forests — yet recognize Colorado as a potential long-term refuge.
Since 2000, the Fish and Wildlife Service has classified lynx as “threatened” — likely to go extinct — due to inadequate protection in federal forests. This protects lynx from hunting and other threats in 13 states including Colorado, where the state-led transplant program began in 1999 in the San Juan Mountains.
For years, state teams tracked those 218 lynx, , and peered into dens to document healthy numbers of lynx kittens. In 2010, Colorado leaders declared the project successful — one of the state’s finest wildlife recovery efforts in the face of rising human development.
Then, after budget cuts, monitoring ceased.
Federal officials say they’ve been delayed in assessing the status of the lynx and honing recovery plans because their agency has faced multiple lawsuits by environmental groups. The latest lawsuit, filed in November by Wild Earth Guardians, demands designation of more in Colorado, New Mexico and other western states.
A critical habitat designation adds little new protection for lynx. It requires extra government scrutiny whenever logging, ski resort-expansion and other projects are proposed on federal public land.
“It’s all about habitat for this species, and they haven’t even completed a recovery plan,” said attorney Matthew Bishop, who has filed several lawsuits on behalf of environment groups. “We’ve given them 14 years to do it. If they would have done it right at first, we would not have brought the lawsuits.”
The required federal review of the status of the lynx and threats to lynx must be done by June, and information from Colorado and other states will be essential, said Jim Zelenak, the Fish and Wildlife Service biologist leading the review.
Federal officials asked CPW biologists “to share whatever they could,” Zelenak said. “It would give us some indication of status and trend. We’re looking for the best science from Colorado and the rest of the lynx range.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, bfinley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/finleybruce
