Canada Lynx

The short answer is: Yes.

Canada Lynx were driven out of Colorado and gone for several decades until they were reintroduced in 1999. After releasing 218 individuals, researchers have tracked their long-range dispersal – lynx released in Colorado were captured in Alaska, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, and Yukon.

The reintroduction provides valuable information on how lynx use the landscape and at present, provides the only option for possibly delisting lynx in Colorado.

The lynx reintroduction program is expensive. The initial reintroductions in were paid for by donations by Vail Associates and the Turner Foundation along with Colorado Department of Wildlife.

Now that we can see that many ecologically important species will be impacted by climate change, does it still make sense to spend lots of money to restore lynx at the southernmost part of their range?

Surprisingly, it does. Datasets generated by Dr. Healy Hamilton, at the California Academy of Sciences, indicate that the climate envelope for Colorado is still predicted to be suitable habitat for the next 100 years.

Using Data Basin, you can visualize Dr. Hamilton's future climate surfaces and range shift models and look at the overlap between current protected areas and future predicted species distributions.