Rare photo of lynx using Alta. highway overpass delights wildlife experts

Calgary Herald/ By Valerie Fortney

 

Photo courtesy Highwaywilding.org, Handout Banff, Alberta: March 28, 2012 -- A Canada lynx uses the Redearth Creek wildlife overpass to cross the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park at 8:34 a.m. on March 28, 2012. Since 1996, over 200,000 animals, including grizzlies, wolves and cougars, have safely crossed the highway using wildlife overpasses and underpasses. A rare image of a lynx captured using a highway-wildlife overpass to cross the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park. This unique image, captured by motion-sensitive cameras, offers an extraordinary glimpse of an animal that many Canadians have never seen.. Photo by Photo courtesy Highwaywilding.org, Handout (For City section story by ) Photograph by: Photo courtesy Highwaywilding.org , Handout

CALGARY — He weighs in at up to 14 kilograms, but thanks to his enormous feet shaped almost like snowshoes, looks as though he is floating on air as he ambles along the snow.

His legs are long and powerful, his coat is thick and grey, and the patches of fur that frame his face look like the kind of beard sported by aristocrats.

When Trevor Kinley opened his email earlier this week, he saw the subject heading "A Little Morning Surprise" and the photograph of the majestic beast.

"You can't help but be struck by how beautiful it is," says Kinley of the March 28 photograph of the animal known as the Canadian lynx.

"I've only had a glimpse of one in the wild, so to capture such a clear image is a rare treat."

What was an even bigger treat for Kinley, a biologist and road ecologist for Parks Canada, is the precise location for the photograph: the Redearth Creek overpass in Alberta's Banff National Park, just a few kilometres up the road from the Sunshine Village ski area.

The overpass is one of six that are part of the wildlife-crossing project in Banff National Park.

Combined with 38 underpasses along the stretch of Trans-Canada Highway that cuts through this wildlife-rich area, the intent of the crossings is to keep the number of animal deaths on the highway to an absolute minimum, thus ensuring that nature's balance is retained.

Started in 1996, the project has included not only the building of animal crossings throughout the park, but also the ongoing monitoring of their effectiveness.

For years, the way researchers kept tabs on usage was through old-fashioned tracking of animal prints. In recent years, motion-sensitive cameras have filled in much more effectively.