Dog attacks ‘not typical lynx behaviour,’ says Yukon biologist

“That’s not a typical lynx behaviour. I’m sure this isn’t the first time it’s happened but, you know, these really are specialist predators of snowshoe hare. So to attack a dog is pretty unusual,” Jung said.

The first recent incident happened late last month, when two women were out walking their dogs on a trail near Beaver Creek, Yukon. One of the women said a lynx appeared out of nowhere and “grabbed my dog by his face.”  The two women managed to pull the cat off the dog and the lynx was later shot.

Then last week, a dog owner in Whitehorse said their pet was attacked in the middle of the day by a lynx in the McIntyre subdivision. The pet owner said a conservation officer happened to witness it, and rescued the injured dog.

Jung says these attacks are surprising, but not terribly puzzling — snowshoe hares are in decline.

“The most obvious answer is, [the lynx] are hungry,” he said.

“When the population of snowshoe hare declines, [lynx] have to find something else to eat. And unfortunately, it seems like some lynx have taken to attacking dogs.” 

Lynx and snowshoe populations offer a classic study in predator-prey dynamics. They typically rise and fall in a multi-year cycle, tied closely together.

As hares become more plentiful, lynx thrive, until the hare population hits a peak and begins to decline. Lynx numbers then also dip. It’s about a nine-to-10 year cycle, Jung says.

“At the peak, the numbers could be, you know, averaged out around three, four bunnies per hectare. But during the decline, it’s more like one bunny per 10 hectares. So it’s quite a difference,” Jung said. 

He says snowshoe hares in Yukon are now in about the third year of decline.  

“So the numbers are really dropping quite a bit,” he said.

That means lynx will soon be more scarce as well, before the hare population begins to rebound in the coming years.

Jung says it’s a dynamic that’s been well-studied over the decades, but there’s a new concern — the population peaks are not what they used to be.

“We’re having weaker peaks. So by that I mean that when they do build up, the numbers don’t build up like they used to in the 1970s or the 1980s,” he said.

Jung said climate change may be a factor, affecting the amount of food available to snowshoe hares, or there could be other stresses on the lynx population.

“We’re not very sure at this time why we have these weak peaks,” Jung said.