We had fantastic sightings for our inaugural private tour for Canada Lynx. The area we visit is unable to support large numbers of people, so to ensure the cats are protected, we keep the area secret. Read our Canada Lynx in Canada Photo Tour 2025 Trip Report to find out all the details of our sightings.
Highlights of the 2025 Canada Lynx of Canada Photo Tour
Canada Lynx: We saw six different Canada Lynx over the span of the week. Sightings on average lasted eight minutes, with the longest sighting lasting about twenty minutes. Our closest sighting was at five meters, and on average the cats were about sixteen meters away from us. We saw lynx on four out of the seven days.
Canada Lynx Mating Behavior: We photographed three different males, all actively engaged in mating calls. Some of those males would even sit out in the open and call away, hoping to attract a mate, or at the very least hear a response back. Hearing the sound is magical and mystifying. We also watched those males scent-mark as they moved through the landscape.
Canada Lynx Mother and Kitten: At the end of our tour, we observed one mother with her single male kitten. It was our most prolonged sighting, as we watched them on the snow for twenty minutes. The kitten was quite old already, and acted rather independent, but there was one nice moment where the two cats came together.
Detailed Canada Lynx of Canada Trip Summary 2025
Day 1: After arriving at the airport in Canada, we made our way to our accommodations over wind and snow-swept roads. We settled into the lodging, had lunch, and readied our gear for our first Canada lynx search excursion. Snow had fallen in the morning, so any track that showed would probably be a fresh track. The afternoon was very quiet and we didn’t see any wildlife. The boreal forests where we look for lynx are very quiet places to being with. Not much wildlife can sustain itself in this harsh environment, so we always know we won’t see many different species, and not many individuals of any particular species.
Day 2: We saw lots of new tracks this morning, including what appeared to be a mother and her offspring, as well as a big male. We searched all day, taking only a short lunch break, but came up empty. Its all about putting in time in this place. Patience and persistence is the name of the game here.
Day 3: The morning was once again very quiet, we did not see any animals. In the afternoon, we found a snowshoe hare hidden amongst the trees. Then, we hit the jackpot, we found a male lynx crossing back and forth over the snow. It kept smelling lynx tracks left in the snow. It would be visible for a minute and then disappear in the trees, hot on the trail of a female, presumably.
Minutes later, he would re-appear still searching feverishly. At one point he sat on the snow and just called. The male’s mating call sound like a prolonged yowl. He continued for a few minutes and it was incredible to get to witness it. We knew how lucky we were. The sighing ended close to sunset, when he disappeared in the trees once more, without coming back out. We were all beyond excited.
Day 4: During mid morning, we found a female lynx walking just inside the forest edge. She emerged sniffing the ground, just like the male did the day before. Was she in estrus and trying to find a male? Her movement pattern was the same, zigzagging seemingly following a scent. She rushed off into the thickets apparently following a scent trail. We waited, hoping she would re-appear. After twenty minutes, a lynx emerged from the forest. At first, we just assumed it must be the female from before, but as we got a closer look, we realized it was a male. As if mirroring the female, he too was feverishly smelling the ground. At one point he was extremely interested in a scent left on a small tangle of grasses. We assume a female must have scent-marked there. He was intrigued by the scent for over two minutes. I always wonder how much information the cats can gather at these scent-marking spots. It was fascinating to watch him. It was also interesting that he did not flehmen, which I would have assumed would have provided even more information. There are always more questions and answers, which is one of the things I absolutely love about spending time with and observing cats.
Day 5: Right after starting our search, we found a male lynx. It was walking on the snow, smelling and calling. We only had a few seconds with him, but were elated to have found a lynx so quickly. After he vanished into the forest, we heard him call once more, revealing he had moved east. We paralled him, hoping to pick him up one more time. He called again, but seemed even further away now. It was going to be impossible to follow him. We continued our search, but remained in and close to the area where we had last seen him.
All of a sudden, not too far from where we had picked up the male, another male was standing there, just inside the tree line. We assumed it was the same male, later, photos revealed this was indeed a different male, one that had a significant scar on his face, making him very easy to identify. He walked along the interior of the forest, but we could glimpse him here and there. Knowing there was a bit of a clearing coming in a hundred yards, we rushed there and waited. Would he continue on his trajectory and emerge?
We waited, seconds turned into minutes. We kept waiting. Shouldn’t he have come out by now? We persisted and kept waiting. Then he appeared, still behind some trees, but much more visible. Then he did something I have never seen any cats do. He jumped up, fully off the ground, and clutched the top of a young conifer tree. He still had it gripped firmly in his front paws when he landed back on the ground, causing the tree to bend. For close to a minute, he proceeded to cheek rub it, leaving his scent all over the top of the tree. When he was finished, the tree bounced back like a spring. Maybe leaving his scent in a higher place meant it would spread further? No matter the answer, it was absolutely wild to witness.
Day 6: The morning was quiet, but we did find a couple of snowshoe hares hiding in the dense boreal forests. After lunch we headed back out. After a couple of hours we found a lynx crossing the open snow and sitting on the snow bank in the sun. We soon realized it wasn’t just one lynx, but a mother and her kitten. Her cub was much more cautious and stayed back at the forest edge. She called to reassure him, when he didn’t emerge, she went and got him. When they re-emerged, she once again was calm and stepped right into the open. The cub, once again, remained right at the forest edge. This time, she didn’t go and get him, but just sat there and waited. She knew eventually he would come to her. After thirty seconds, surveying the situation and determining how he felt about us, he stepped out and joined her. When he passed her, he lifted his tail in her face, a move that is still unclear to me why. They then crossed the open snow, and we watched in amazement until they once again disappeared into the far forest edge. We waited for a while, just in case they would step out again, as they often do, but we didn’t see them again. We were elated with the sighted and kept talking about it while searching for more animals. None appeared by sunset so we headed to dinner and celebrated.
Day 7: We only had a few hours before needing to head back to the airport. We tried for the lynx for just a couple more hours in the morning, but didn’t see anything. With six lynx sightings we were beyond ecstatic about our encounters!
Canada Lynx of Canada Photo Tour 2025 Species List
Mammals
| Snowshoe Hare | Lepus americanus |
| Canada Lynx | Lynx canadensis |
| Coyote | Canis latrans |
Birds
| Dark-eyed Junco | Junco hyemalis |
| Redpoll | Acanthis flammea |
| Common Raven | Corvus corax |
| Canada Jay | Perisoreus canadensis |
| Ruffed Grouse | Bonasa umbellus |
