How researchers discovered the death of one of Minnesota’s oldest known Canada lynx

Through a DNA analysis of a hair sample, Superior National Forest wildlife researchers have identified an animal carcass found last spring as one of the oldest Canada lynx among those they track in northern Minnesota.

The lynx was known to Forest Service staff as GLNR-S-571, aka the Trappers Lake Female, born 11 years ago in the Isabella, Minn., area, according to the agency.

A Superior National Forest volunteer found the lynx’s carcass — most of the skeleton and some hair — at the edge of a road early last spring. Scientists at a specialized Forest Service research lab in Missoula, Mont., analyzed the hair from the cat’s front paw. The agency said the cause of death is uncertain but it’s possible the female cat died from natural causes.

What is known is that the Trappers Lake Female had many litters of kittens over time. The DNA analysis showed it is possible that she had offspring each year from 2019 to 2024 and perhaps before 2019.

From 2014 to 2024, national forest staff and volunteers collected scat samples from the feline — key evidence of lynx health and movement — covering an area of about 71 square miles. Her breeding territory spanned 12 miles northwest of Isabella to 13 miles northeast of the town.

There are 583 lynx in the Superior National Forest’s DNA database. First detected in 2013, a lynx that goes by GLNR-S-551 is now the oldest cat at age 11. The agency said there is only one other cat older than 8. “Both 571 and 551 were found last winter and were known to be 11 years of age and both had kittens last winter,” wildlife biologist Dan Ryan said.

Ryan told the Minnesota Star Tribune in an email that DNA has been collected from those 583 lynx since 2000, and that the database includes many cats that are no longer alive. Researchers have sent more than 3,200 samples since then to the National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, the lab that confirmed the identity of the Trappers Lake Female.

“Most lynx we identify are only found that year and not recaptures [by DNA] in future years,” he added. “Only 33% of all lynx we identify as kittens are ever found again past that first year.”

The Midwest’s population of lynx, a threatened species since 2000 under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, is estimated between 100 and 200.