I caught a lynx a few times on my wildlife camera this winter. Given the few sightings of rabbits this year (their preferred prey) I wondered what they were eating. I may have solved the puzzle when I saw what appeared to be a large animal being dragged not too far from my camera set-up.

Initially, I thought it unlikely that a lynx could bring down a deer, let alone drag it a considerable distance. I considered that it must have been a cougar. But there were no classic signs of a cougar dragging its tail in the snow and, the paw prints were very large.  Lynx paws are surprisingly larger than cougar paws.

What was most interesting was that the animal was dragged three quarters of a kilometre ending on an open ridge overlooking Mt. Robson. I followed the trail and found a deer carcass or, I should say, bits of fur, which was surprising given that the carcass has been there less than a week. It looked like a wolverine may have also had its fill.

I did have a number of whitetail deer including a surprisingly small fawn (given the late fall) visit my bird feeder regularly and wondered whether it was perhaps the fawn that had met its demise. What was most perplexing though is why an animal would drag its kill that far –perhaps he wanted a clear view of interlopers trying to get their share or, perhaps he just liked the view.