A rare lynx has been struck and killed on the Trans-Canada Highway in Yoho National Park.
The animal was found on the side of the road about five kilometres west of Field, where the back road to the hamlet intersects with the Trans-Canada Highway, late Wednesday morning (Jan. 9).
“We’re saddened by the loss of any animal, especially one of the more sensitive species,” said Brianna Burley, acting human wildlife conflict specialist for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay.
“It’s not that it never happens, but it’s uncommon for us to have a lynx struck on the road.”
Lynx are considered rare and elusive, but they do live in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks. They are highly dependent on snowshoe hare for food and their populations tend to cycle with hare populations.
Parks Canada does not have a good handle on the lynx population in the parks.
“We don’t know how many lynx we have exactly, but we estimate they’re on par with grizzlies,” said Burley. “It’s in the dozens, but definitely not in the hundreds.”
In October of last year, a lynx was struck and killed on Highway 93 South in Kootenay National Park, about 700 metres north of the Hector Gorge viewpoint.
Since 2002, there have been 13 lynx killed on the highways in Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, including three in Kootenay, seven in Yoho and three in the Lake Louise field unit of Banff National Park.
Burley said Parks Canada encourages drivers to slow down on park roads and report to Parks Canada whenever animals are struck by vehicles, at 403-762-1470.
“This is a good reminder we need to pay attention and drive cautiously,” she said.
Earlier last year, a rare image of a lynx was captured by remote camera crossing the Redearth Creek overpass on the Trans-Canada Highway. It was the sixth lynx recorded using either the underpasses or overpasses since 1996.
