Lynx

hello everyone welcome back to relax with animal facts I am staff Wolff and today I am going to be learning with you about our furry scaly or possibly even slimy friends and in today's case it is definitely going to be a furry friend of ours because we are covering the %HESITATION so wonderful links this of course is a very special listener episode and in this case it is a very special listener episode because of how many people requested the links so this episode is dedicated to eva Herman Dan Shuki Jesson Ronnie Nicholas laurel dnia Kaylee Molly will and and now thank you all for taking the time to suggest this amazing creature this podcast episode wouldn't have been possible without you for how to request your very own episode as well as to get access to the facts in this one all of that information is in the description or in the show notes but I will also be covering them at the end of the episode if you would like access to completely intro free episodes exclusive episodes and more all while supporting the show you can go to patriarch dot com slash relax with animal facts or just click on the picture on link in the description I have written a book for anybody that wants to start a podcast of the Rome it's cold anyone can talk and you can find it on Amazon or through the website and now let us begin to wind down a little bit and as always I have three exhortations for you the first is to strap on a pair of snowshoes we are not in any need of sneakers or for scuba gear but for where we are going today snowshoe S. are going to be your best friend and secondly I encourage you to notice perhaps where you are carrying some tension is it in the shoulders is it in the head in the hands everyone is different in this regard and so it is personal to you but regardless of where that tension is my exhortation is the same I would like you to do your best Oscar award winning performance of an impersonation of cello just simply relax wherever you carry your attention and the last thing I encourage you to do is to allow your mind to wander and journey with me as we go into a Canadian high altitude forest covered with snow where the links resides for those of you unfamiliar with the climate of Canada I give you a very warm welcome kidding aside this environment is truly beautiful but we're not just here for the mountains for the window for the trees we're here to see one special creature and that is the links now the kind of links we're going to find here is the Canada lynx it is not the Canadian links but the Canada lynx it is one of four species of links that are found in the world and so we could be in many places in Europe for example where we might see the Eurasian lynx or even the Iberian lynx now if you think Canada is cold we could go to Siberia and check out the links there another time now for discount their common name is the links but their scientific name is also the links normally here I would go into some kind of Latin or Greek word study as to why the scientific name is what it is but I am going to postpone it until the end considering that it is no different from their common name the links is a mammal it is a carnivore meaning that it eats a diet strictly of animal material and meet it is going to be between thirty two to forty seven inches long and weighed between twenty two to forty four pounds that's between ten and twenty kilograms so setting the stage for them generally we can begin to look at them more closely and the reason we are here high up on this mountain is because the links prefers to inhabit very high altitudes and forests in particular they will tend to live in dens rock crevices underneath ledges or hollowed out trees now considering that we are in Canada what we ought to distinguish is the Canada lynx and bobcat they are not in fact the same they both live in North America and have some similar characteristics which leads some to conclude that the bobcats and lynx or simply one and the same one other reason why people might mix up the two is because the bobcat got its name from its tail it is short or bald hence the bobcat but the link says we will find out has also a very short or Bob detail there are even experts that can struggle in differentiating the two physically at a quick glance the links depending on the species can differ in color some of them being a great a rusty red or light brown color but they will all often have some kind of dark spotting so as to give them camouflage as you might assume there for is very thick up here we are wearing snowshoes and many layers with a very puffy jacket on top the links basically has an organic version of those things there for will grow thicker and thicker during the coldest times of the year and accommodated courting Li when things get warmer one of the main ways that the links is easily distinguishable from other cat species is the for that points out from their ears they have these very pointed black tufts of hair that stand near the end of their eaters and as the links is listening around and their ears are turning and rotating it almost looks like to me like they're years or little antenna high with the black tufts of hair swinging about in the wind their cheeks long legs and their stubby tails will be covered with this beard like for slightly longer than the rest of their body and their tail which we had just learned is bogged in very short also has a blacktip akin to their ears now interestingly enough researchers are still looking into why at the end of the years they have these black tufts of hair given that they look like some sort of and ten nine researchers have postulated that they may function a kitten to intend I in some way helping them here helping them to detect movements that are above their head or it may simply be a mechanism by which they can keep their yours warm so for any aspiring animal biologists out there that may study the links in the future perhaps you will be the one to discover what exactly these pointed ears are for as we will soon see their body proportions make them something like a loaded spring and you may notice as the links is walking around that although the snow is very deep they're walking very close to the surface now if me and you were to take our snowshoes off and just with her boots go ahead and try to walk in the snow we would quickly realize just how deep the snow is we would have trouble walking as we would be buried just past the knees or up to the hips in snow with each step and so that is why we must use snowshoes and the links has remarkably adept pause for walking in this environment there are large padded and sick for paws act like organic snowshoes it allows them to be agile even in the very deep snow their paws distribute their weight through a large surface area and allows them to be incredibly agile in very weird conditions and as we look at the Canada lynx in specific we might think it is simply just a bigger version of a house cat but appearances here might be deceiving they are in fact amazing predators and much more adept in hunting than the average housecat no there are two distinguishing factors between the links and the bobcat the first is that the bobcats is going to have smaller black tufts on their ears as well as the white underside of their tail the latter characteristic is probably going to be really challenging to determine when looking at a distance but the tufts on the air can be a giveaway if you look closely they are nocturnal and solitary for the most part of course apart from mating season now something that might not be all that intuitive is that they are great swimmers in addition to their great climbing the Canada lynx is not going to have too many opportunities to swim here in this environment but if or when they do they can do it well with their great hearing and to their amazing eyesight they are very efficient hunters there I said it is so good in fact that they can spot amounts from two hundred and fifty feet away but when they spot a creature that doesn't mean that they will charge after it right away the links is not great in long endurance competitions they will not chase or run after animals for very long but because their body is built like a loaded spring they are fantastic ambush predators so once prayed get just a little bit too close the pounds from their hind legs and are able to make quick work of their prey they will attempt to get closer by stocking the pray silently which their paws of course hope for as well and they can close quite a distance and very quickly so for the Canadian lynx while they are mostly going to be going after that snowshoe hare for the Iberian lynx it's going to be the European rabbit and the bobcat we'll have a much more varied diet it is the larger Eurasian lynx that can make work of deer and other small animals and the links has been known to also kill farm animals such as sheep and goats in Norway for example the government will compensate farmers for ten thousand or so sheep every year because they were killed by links forms that have their property extending very close the forest are often the ones targeted by links now this may not be of any surprise but the links is a very important species in its environment they are considered to be a keystone species for a few reasons now of course one of these ways is population control for the prey but one thing cannot be discounted and that is the aspect of behavior for prey when there is a predator around animals will act differently whether they have natural threats or not but in the case of these herbivorous creatures that the links hunts they will alter their behavior in order to stay away from certain places or go to other places depending on the ability that they will have to escape from that particular location going into a corner in which there is no place to go is not a safe place to be when there is an ambush predator around and so this makes a lot of favorable grazing land that large herbivores would enjoy otherwise and so what this does is insurers the rapid in favorable growth of a lot of plant life that otherwise would be consumed by all of the herbal force so this crazy man will succeed from grasslands towards the forest binding the soil with the tree roots and even securing river ways these sorts of changes can bring new insects bats birds and a whole change in the eco system just because of the presence or absence of a key predators like the lynx and now let us talk about links and baby links their mating season will be between winter and early spring and females will only bond with one male and so rival males will scream or screech at each other perhaps meow very loudly as the fight over the female after a period of about two months females will give birth to a litter of kittens somewhere between one and four and she will raise all of these kittens on her own young links will become independent at around ten months of age and leave home after about twenty months to find their own territory and the last fact is that links can take two thousand mile treks but scientists are still unsure as to why the even do this scientists have tracked different arctic wild cats on their wild journeys these long tracks are in no way easy but sports some of the largest natural challenges but why animals like the links do these things researchers shrug their shoulders and now let us move on to the name where does the name links come from or rather what's does it mean but around the mid fourteenth century is when we began using this word links to describe this moderately sized wild cat and it comes from the Latin word links as well and it is thought to track back to a proto Indo European root word that is Luke this word means light or brightness and so it is attributed to the links in reference to its very gleaming eyes were possibly its ability to see in the dark now this is not one hundred percent determined but it seems to be quite probably the case now let us move on to the review portion of the show this review was written by forever brie who wrote all the way from the United States of America and debris writes love all the facts and how the stories are told thanks for all the research and details you gather about the animals so interesting and insightful to the listeners who say you need to talk faster you can speed up the narration audio speed on apple podcasts and in audible thank you Bree for taking the time to leave such a wonderful review I am so glad that you love all of the facts and that you're a part of what makes the show so great as regards the latter part of your review that is indeed a could tip it probably does not apply to Spotify or elsewhere but if you believe I talk slowly Bry says you can speed up my voice on apple podcasts or in audible and the speed of my voice is something that I truly have addressed to the utmost of my ability you'll find that in many older episodes I talk rather quickly and then now I talk a little bit slower it is a big challenge because what is slow for one is fast for another I cannot tell you how many messages I have gotten saying that the podcast is much too quick and then the podcast is much too slow and then also that my voice is active perfect pace I simply cannot do much to please absolutely everybody but I tried to speak at a speed that is appropriate given the setting and what the podcast seeks to achieve and I thank all of you who have been long term listeners and have been an intimate part of that learning process all of you long term listeners have been through so many different things on the show so many format changes speed differences all of those sorts of things and I'm so happy for your continued loyalty and listenership if the show has helped you in any way and do you want to give back leaving a review is something that you can do in under a couple of minutes that makes a huge difference so if you on Spotify you can rate if you were on apple podcasts you can leave a five star review if you don't have any of those options on your listening platform you can always share the show were to do whatever the platform allows you to do if you would like your very own episode and to learn about an animal that you find cool you can submit your animal suggestions by going to relax with the animal facts dot com and clicking on the animal request tab if you wish to reach out to the show for any other reason you can do so by following the account relax with the animal facts on Instagram or you can send a message to relax with animal facts at two G. mail dot com make sure to follow the Instagram because we're going to be starting a live quiz every month in which case if you win you can suggest the next podcast episode you can win a shout out or win some merch so make sure to go to that Instagram the facts used in this episode come from Canadian geographic dot CA National Geographic dot com Britannica dot com sacked animal dot com and at him online dot com all of these resources are in the show notes with a description and this episode would not have been possible without the contributions to the animal fact world by all of these resources I hope you all enjoyed this episode as much as I did and I look forward to seeing you on the next podcast episode with the next animal take care