Two lynx shot dead in Colorado

01/07/2007 00:00:00 November 2006. The Colorado Division of Wildlife reports that 2 lynx have been shot and killed in southwest Colorado.

A male lynx was found on Nov. 1. Lynx collars used by the DOW are equipped to send position information to a satellite. The information is downloaded to DOW computers once each week. Based on when the signal was received, the lynx probably died a week earlier. When researchers found the animal no wounds were apparent. During the necropsy small wounds were found on the body which indicated that lynx was killed by a shotgun blast.

The cat, captured in Canada as part of the Division of Wildlife’s lynx reintroduction effort, was released in southwest Colorado in 2005.

Another lynx that had been shot was found Nov. 2. The necropsy found that the lynx had been shot twice by a rifle, once in the hip and once in the head. The cat was famous among DOW researchers because it had been spotted guarding the carcass of a coyote that it had apparently killed.

In October 2005 two lynx radio collars were found in southwest Colorado that had been cut off lynx. One was found in the snow about 20 miles northeast of Durango. The other was dropped into the mail slot of the Silverton post office. The lynx wearing the collars were never found. DOW law enforcement officers suspect the animals were shot.

The DOW is reintroducing lynx in the mountains of Colorado. The first lynx were released in 1999. About 200 lynx are believed to be alive in Colorado’s southern and central mountains.