THUNDER BAY — A lynx sighting on a residential street on Thunder Bay’s north side offered an unforgettable wildlife encounter for a local resident, and a gentle reminder that the predators can be found even in the city’s urban areas.
Andrew Grant, who lives on Hinton Avenue in the Grandview area, saw the big cat prowling through the neighbourhood around suppertime Sunday evening through a window.
“We saw a large animal walking down the sidewalk across the street, and we didn’t see anybody walking with it, so we thought, ‘Oh, there’s a big dog on the loose,’” he said, estimating it appeared to be the size of a golden retriever. “When we looked out the front door, we could see it was a wildcat.”
The pointiness of the lynx’s tufted ears was the big tell, he said.
Some neighbours also reported having recently seen a wildcat, he added.
Wildlife encounters aren’t exactly rare in the area — Grant has previously spotted everything from a bear to a porcupine, saying the McVicar Creek serves as a corridor from the nearby wilderness along Onion Lake Road.
Still, his first sighting of a wildcat in the neighbourhood made a definite impression.
“It’s really a beautiful creature,” he said. “It’s bigger than you’d think — when you come close, you say to yourself, wow — this isn’t really something to get too close to. It’s an impressive thing and it’s a hunting machine.”
With many residents having small dogs, he said, that can be cause for some concern.
According to Michelle Romeo, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, wildcats will seek prey in the city at times when they're not as abundant in less populous areas.
“Thunder Bay has a lot of green area and space around the city, which is ideal for lynx,” she said. “The main food source for lynx are small mammals, specifically snowshoe hare, and they will follow their food source. When their main food sources are low, they can travel closer to or within the city.”
Residents can take precautions in their yards including keeping garbage contained, not composting meat or fish, avoiding feeding pets outside, and emptying grease traps from barbecues, she added.
If residents encounter a lynx or bobcat, they are encouraged not to approach the animal and not to run, but to slowly back away from the animal while making themselves look larger and making lots of noise.
More information is available at the government’s website.
