Lawsuit Seeks To Expand Protection For Lynx

Shy and benign to humans, treasured for their pelts, lynx need federal protection to avoid becoming extinct south of Canada, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relied on inflated population reports and a proposed policy change to reject recommendations by the agency’s own biologists and regional administrators that the lynx be listed as threatened or endangered, the suit said.

The suit asked that the agency be directed to propose that the lynx, already granted state protection in 13 states, be listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Thousands of the medium-sized wildcats are found in Canada and Alaska, but only 300 to 700 are believed to remain in 20 other states where they once ranged, said William Snape, legal director of Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C., one of 13 groups that joined in filing the suit.

No population counts have been done, but biologists estimate there may be 150 to 400 lynx in Montana, 100 to 150 in north-central Washington state, as many as 50 in Idaho and 20 to 50 in Maine, Snape said.