Lynx
Ilves
Lynx
Lynx (Lynx lynx), the only feline predator in Lapland. The coat of the lynx is reddish in summer and brownish grey with dark spots in winter. The head is round and the ears pointed with tufts of hair at the top. The body is 70-140 cm in length, and the tail is short: 15-25 cm. The lynx can weigh 8-25 kg, and the male is larger than the female. It lives in all kinds of forests, with a preference for hilly, rocky terrain. It is mainly a nocturnal animal, and its main sustenance comes from hares and small mammals, but it also eats foxes, the calves of different kinds of deer, birds and sheep. The cubs (2-3) are born in late May and they follow their mother till late in the following winter. The lynx can live for up to twenty years. The minimum population of lynx at the end of 2002 in the Nordic countries was 3000 individuals: 900 in Finland, 1500 in Sweden and 600 in Norway.
