Lynx Facts for Kids – Appearnce, Diet, Hunting, Reproduction & breeding

Lynx is a representative of big cats’ family that has pretty remote area of distribution from its closest relatives in Africa and Asia. In particular, the essential habitat of this specie features Scandinavian Peninsula, Balkans and Carpathian mountains.

As one would guess, these cats prefer mountainous forests and rocky hills. The environmental conditions in which lynxes live in affect a lot of their behavior, meal, hunting skills, reproduction etc.

Now let us examine some more interesting lynx facts for kids about their appearnce, diet, hunting, reproduction, breeding and their interactions with people.

Lynx Facts for Kids

Appearance

• Comparing to other species of big cats, lynx has many distinguishing features. Unlike tigers or lions, its body is a bit shortened with high and strong paws.
• Body length reaches 82-105 cm, adding 20-31 cm of the tail; the average weight is 8-15 kg, rarely increasing up to 20.
• Additionally, males are slightly larger than females.  However, the very “hallmark” of the species is a fur on lynx’s face.
• Specifically, it is associated with long hair on the sides of the muzzle, which creates an image of “whiskers”, and thin tufts on the top of the ears. The last ones play an important role in animal’s life.
• More precisely, thanks to tufts, lynx has the best sense of hearing within big cats’ family: it can hear tree cracks on the distance of 60 meters, for instance.
• It is interesting to know that the color of lynx’s fur changes depending on season, which is normal for “residents” of moderate climate zone.
• Speaking about skin paint, reddish and ash tones are majors, but the bottom of lynx’s corpus is white.
• Little spots are distributed all over the body. In summer the fur becomes shorter and thicker, with more clearly defined spots, while and in winter it is fluffy, thick with blurred pattern.

Meal and Hunting

• Regardless all its glory and beauty, this cat is also a dexterous hunter. Firm teeth and sharp claws help lynx to hunt in the thickening twilight and at night.
• In fact, its skills include nice swimming, tree climbing, long jumps (reaching 4 meters) and, of course, excellent senses of eyesight and hearing. On the contrary, lynx is a settled animal that hunts only in the area of its habitat.
• Hares, birds and rodents comprise the main meal of this wild animal; rarely lynx hunts deer and moose, if experiencing lack of hares in the area.
• The hunting strategy of lynx is focused on silent following of a future prey with further lightening attack. It hides in underwood, ravines, slashing of trees; being about 15 meters away from the prey, it immediately strikes an animal with one-two.

Reproduction and Breeding

Breeding season of lynx is February-March period. The average length of pregnancy is nearly 63-70 days, so the offspring appears almost in June.

Lynx females dominate while raising little cats, including feeding, nest arrangement, taking care of and protecting from other predators. Namely, this lasts for three months, until children leave the lair. Commonly, the age of expectancy is 21 year.

Lynx and People

Lynxes are comfortable with living in villages’ neighborhood, which cannot be referred to people. In numerous European and Siberian villages people continue to shoot these big cats for protection or getting a nice piece of animal skin.

On the contrary, lynx can attack humans only if it is wounded or has no way for escape. It is also possible to note that in many areas lynx is considered a depredator, which reduces the population of hares, birds and hoofed animals.

Lynx Facts for Kids – Video

Guest Post by Maria Kruk, an author for Species.com