RUTLAND COUNTY, Vermont (WCAX) – It’s not very often that someone encounters a big cat while running errands, but what a Rutland County man saw this weekend is one he won’t soon forget, and he caught it on video.
Vermonter Gary Shattuck was driving along a country road on Saturday when he came across a surprising big cat. He grabbed his camera and started filming the big cat.
Shattuck thought he was filming a Canada lynx, a cat rarely seen in Vermont. When Vermont fur biologist Brehan Furfey saw the video, she was sure.
“This is an incredibly rare opportunity,” Furfey said. “It may be their only chance in their entire life. How many people in the world can say ‘I drove up to a lynx and was able to take it in?'”
I accompanied Furfey on Monday as she investigated the sighting.
“I’m probably looking for signs of lynx activity right now,” Furfey said.
She says the cat is probably a young male and that it was walking along the edge of the forest in search of food.
“They walk quietly along the edge looking for prey or just hearing it and can easily jump quite far to catch the animal. So it’s a very sneaky way of sneaking up on their prey,” Furfey said.
Lynx are widespread in Canada, where their preferred food, snowshoe hares, are abundant.
The last confirmed sighting of a Canadian lynx in Vermont was in Jericho in 2018. They are even rarer in southern Vermont.
According to Fish and Wildlife, there is no reason to be afraid of the cats, but you should give them freedom to hunt.
“I urge people to keep their distance if they see one and remind them to be respectful of the animal,” Furfey said.
Every few years, the Fish and Wildlife Service receives about 100 to 200 reports of possible lynx incidents, but most involve bobcats, which have a well-established population in Vermont.
Lynx have higher hindquarters, very large paws and more muted colors.
Although bobcats and lynx look very similar, Fish and Wildlife still wants people to report if they think it might be a lynx because it’s important to be able to track them nationwide.
All rights reserved.
