Turkestan lynx

The mountain cat with tufted ears

The lynx is a big cat with black tufts on the tips of its ears. It lives in Uzbekistan's mountain forests and is very secretive — people hardly ever see it. Its paws are big and furry, like snowshoes, so it doesn't sink into snow. A lynx can catch a hare with a 4-metre leap!

The Turkestan lynx (Lynx lynx isabellinus) is the Central Asian subspecies of the Eurasian lynx, living in Uzbekistan's Western Tian Shan (Ugam-Chatkal, Chatkal Reserve) and Hissar mountains at 1,500–3,500 m. Its coat is paler with fewer spots — camouflage among rock and snow. Prey: hares, marmots, chukars, young ibex; its sight and hearing are extremely sharp, and the ear tufts gather sound like antennae. Solitary, with a range of up to 100 km². Listed in Uzbekistan's Red Book — poaching and shrinking prey are the main threats.

Fun facts

• A lynx can see a mouse 75 m away and hear it from 300 m.
• In winter a lynx walks on "snowshoes" — wide, furry paws.
• One lynx's territory can be bigger than the city of Tashkent.