While strolling in the woods with my captive lynx one day, I noticed her rubbing her cheeks on certain objects, just as house cats do. Suddenly, an idea flashed into my mind. Parhaps a geneticist could determine, through DNA fingerprinting of the hair samples, the identity, gender, and genetic relatedness of different lynx.
Lynx are shy, secretive animals and difficult to census.
Lack of reliable information about their distribution, abundance, and genetic status has hampered development of sound conservation strategies. New techniques for sampling rare carnivores such as lynx were sorely needed. Wildlife Conservation Magazine Vol. I collected the hairs the cats left behind, and these known samples were sent to New York, to the Conservation Genetics Laboratory of WCS, where George Amato is testing them to determine useful DNA markers. Meanwhile, in field tests in Montana, we were able to gather 28 samples of verified lynx hair from 20 sites.