Elusive animal is captured on video — as it hunts prey ‘strutting around’ in Minnesota

An elusive animal rarely captured on camera was recently recorded as it stalked what was nearly its next meal.

In the 43-second video shared by the Voyageurs Wolf Project on April 17, a lynx is seen walking past a trail camera in snowy northern Minnesota.

The rare wildcat stealthily crept toward a grouse as its tail twitched, much like a house cat ready to pounce.

But just as the lynx was about to snatch the game bird from a short distance away, the grouse flew away.

The lynx then strutted back toward the camera before continuing out of sight.

“Wow, that was so cool,” one Facebook user replied. “Beautiful animal.”

“Great video,” another person commented. “Loved his tail movement as he stalked the bird.”

“Love seeing that beautiful Lynx,” someone said. “Awesome to be caught on camera. Darn, it missed out on Grouse snack.”

The lynx was captured hunting the grouse that was “strutting around” a few weeks before the video was posted, according to the Voyageurs Wolf Project.

“We don’t get lynx on our cameras very often and certainly not videos of them hunting prey,” the organization said. “So we thought this was pretty cool to capture on camera!”

Canada lynx are “about the same size as a bobcat, but with brown fur with white undersides, long ear tufts, and a pronounced goatee under the chin,” according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They have “snowshoe” like feet, allowing them to walk on deep and soft snow.

Lynx eat snowshoe hares, birds and small mammals, officials said. Wolves, fishers, bobcats and coyotes are some of their main predators.

While people were once able to hunt and trap lynx in Minnesota, the state has protected the animal since 1984 due to population decline in Canada.

The lynx is considered a federally threatened species.

The Voyageurs Wolf Project is a research project based out of the University of Minnesota. Researchers with the organization study wolves in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, but their cameras often capture other wildlife in northern Minnesota.

This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Elusive animal is captured on video — as it hunts prey ‘strutting around’ in Minnesota."