Lynx #49 weighed 20.5 pounds when she was captured near Isabella, MN on December 18, 2005. She was relocated in the Isabella area over the next few months, and we became interested when in March 2006, at the end of breeding season, we had her location very close to the location of L35, a male. Our excitement was short-lived, however. In March 2006 both L35 and L49 collars were transmitting from the same location.  We initially thought that this was some late breeding behavior, so we were a little bit surprised when the next day L49 collar was giving a mortality signal, and L35 was still in the area. 

We went into the site on snowmobiles, and found that L35 was still present a day later.  Walking in, we found that L49 was about 40% consumed (based on her body mass at capture).  There were no tracks but lynx tracks in the vicinity, and we found 5 lynx scats that suggested that L35 had been feeding on the carcass of L49 for some time.  The head had been severed from the vertebrae, and the collar was laying in the snow, which explained why it was transmitting a mortality signal.

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