Harvest of Canada lynx pelts from 1825 to 2002
English: Title: The Canadian field-naturalist Identifier: canadianfieldn1172003otta (find matches) Year: 1919 (1910s) Authors: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club Subjects: Natural history Publisher: Ottawa, Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: 2003 Poole: A Review of Canada Lynx in Canada 367 Population Size and Trends An accurate estimate of lynx population size is impossible over large areas. However, considering the extent of lynx habitat in Canada (roughly 5 500 000 km2), densities during the low of 2 lynx/100 km2, and a safety factor of 50%, there may be roughly 50 000 lynx in Canada during the cyclic low and over 500 000 during some cyclic peaks. The few intensive radio telemetry studies conducted in North America provide the data for most density estimates. Considering that many of these studies were conducted over relatively short time frames, with small sample sizes within poor- ly bounded study areas, and often for reasons other than density estimation, even these density estimates must be considered imprecise. Regional estimates are generally conservative extrapolations from intensive radio telemetry studies within different broad biophy- sical areas. Relative changes in lynx populations may be indexed using a variety of methods, such as snow track counts for Snowshoe Hares and/or lynx (Poole 1994; Labonte et al. 1999*; K. Poole, unpublished data), tracking changes in kits in the harvest using pelt length measurement (Quinn and Gardner 1984; Slough 1996) or carcass collections (Slough and Mowat 1996), and trapper questionnaires (Slough et al. 1987). Peak densities of 30-45 lynx/100 km2 have been observed in regenerating stands in the north (Poole 1994; Slough and Mowat 1996), and 8-20/100 km2 in mature forests in the north and more southern ranges (Parker et al. 1983; Banville 1986; Noiseux and Doucet 1987; Kesterson 1988; Fortin and Huot 1995; O'Don- oghue et al. 1997). Population densities during the low in all populations are typically 2-3 lynx/100 km2. The few published studies in southern boreal forests suggest relatively static lynx densities of 2-3/100 km2 (Koehler 1990; Aubry et al. 2000), typical of north- ern populations during the low in the hare cycle. Fur harvest returns have provided records of lynx harvests for two centuries, and show dramatic changes in the amplitude in the cycle (Figure 2). Harvest returns, however, do not directly represent real population change. Harvest returns are affected by the host of fac- tors influencing trapper effort and success, including changes in socio-economic conditions, season length, quota and trap type restrictions, fur prices, subsidies, mode of transportation, and access. Fur prices likely affect harvest effort over the short term (Brand and Keith 1979), but it may not be valid to compare infla- tion-adjusted prices and harvests that occurred decades apart. Text Appearing After Image: Figure 2. Canada Lynx harvest in Canada from 1825 to 2002, from Mowat el al. (2000:Figure 9.4) and Statistics Canada, updated to August 2003. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.