Many feline lovers only see the short-tailed cat and the lynx look alike, but they don't know that it is also a lynx. The short-tailed cat belongs to the lynx genus of the subfamily cat and has common features of the genus: long ears and a tuft of black hair at the tip of the ear; a short and rounded face with a short mane on the edge of the cheek; a shortened mouth, two premolars less than other cats; relatively long limbs; and a thick tail as if it were truncated.
Eurasian lynx
Members of the genus Lynx, also known as the Great Bobcat, are found in four species worldwide – the Eurasian lynx, the Spanish lynx, the Canadian lynx and the short-tailed cat. The most confusing in the wild are the Canadian lynx and the short-tailed cat, as they have some overlap in the border areas of Canada and the United States.
It is false to say that short-tailed cats are smaller than lynxes and less ferocious than the latter. Zoologists have shown that, at least in overlapping distributions, the short-tailed cat is larger and more advantageous than the Canadian lynx.
bobcat
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > lynx ears are longer and tails shorter</h1>
Let's first talk about how the Canadian lynx is distinguished from the short-tailed cat. Looking at the face alone, the lynx looks more expensive and more individualistic, while the short-tailed cat looks more cute and more like a cat. The tuft of black hair on the tip of the short-tailed cat's ear is shorter, while the lynx is more pronounced. The long hairs at the tip of the ears help them listen to the movements of small animals and act as "antennas". Canadian lynx specializes in hares as their only staple food, so it requires a longer "antenna" and a sharper sense of hearing.
As the name suggests, the short-tailed cat has a short tail of 11-18 cm; the Canadian lynx is the shortest cat with a tail length of only 5-12 cm. The short tail reflects the fact that members of the genus lynx are mostly active on the ground and rarely climb, although they are also master tree climbers. In addition, the short-tailed cat has several ring-shaped stripes on its tail, with a black back and a white underside of the tail tip, while the entire tip of the tail of the Canadian lynx is black.
Canadian lynx
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > body structure, dietary habits, and temperament</h1>
The Canadian lynx is somewhat longer than the short-tailed cat, with a head and body length of 74-107 cm and the latter having a body length of only 50–100 cm. But they weigh about the same, which shows that short-tailed cats are thicker.
The entire subfamily of cats exhibits a more developed hindlimb than its forelimbs, especially the genus Lynx. The hind legs of the short-tailed cat are only slightly longer than the front legs, and the hip height is about equal to the shoulder height; the hind legs of the Canadian lynx are significantly longer than the front legs, the hip height is higher than the shoulder height, and the whole body is in a forward-leaning posture.
Comparison of Canadian lynx (right) and short-tailed cat (left) specimens
The differences in body auscultology between the Canadian lynx and the short-tailed cat reflect their different dietary preferences. Snowshoe rabbits account for at least two-thirds of the Recipes of Canadian Lynx, and can even reach 97% in individual regions. This prey has little combat power, but it is very capable of running, and it is best for lynx to catch them in one leap, and the ability to fight is not important. As a result, the Canadian lynx is lighter and more suitable for jumping with developed hind legs.
Catching ungulates is what cats do best, but the Canadian lynx, which has been eating hares for millions of years, has lost this skill. In Newfoundland, when snowshoe rabbit density plummets, the Canadian lynx turns to catching reindeer pups to fill their hunger, but usually only for a few weeks. The Canadian lynx doesn't even know how to kill ten kilograms of fawns on the spot, and most of the prey dies from bacterial infections that follow.
Although the short-tailed cat also eats hares and forest rabbits, it still maintains a very varied diet. In the Northeast United States, deer are very important to short-tailed cats, with 72% of short-tailed cats catching deer to eat in the winter. Not only do they hunt deer, but adult white-tailed deer and black-tailed deer are also on their menus. There is evidence that short-tailed cats can kill deer that are ten times their own weight, either riding on the back of a deer or hanging from the neck of a deer, and the prey eventually dies of suffocation or heavy bleeding.
Therefore, compared to the Canadian lynx, the short-tailed cat sacrifices some of its bouncing skills, but retains a greater degree of fighting ability, which is the key to its ability to catch adult deer. In this regard, the short-tailed cat is more similar to its "big brother", the Eurasian lynx. Big cats such as lions and tigers are good at subduing large prey, and they are all stout and have more developed forelimbs than their hind limbs.
bobcat
The difference in diet also makes the Canadian lynx and the short-tailed cat have a very different temperament, the Canadian lynx is more docile, and the short-tailed cat is very fierce. Some zoos liken the short-tailed cat to a "grumpy little daughter-in-law", which is a good summary of its cute and powerful characteristics. Some zoologists lament that predators are usually bigger and more powerful, but there are very few species that can be bullied by their aggressive personalities, and the short-tailed cat is one of them.
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > lynx are more suitable for living in the north</h1>
The fur of the Canadian lynx living in the north is usually silver-gray, and the spots are so pale in color that they are almost invisible. The southern short-tailed cat shows a gray-brown to reddish-brown color with more pronounced black or dark brown spots. This is in line with Glogg's law, and animals that usually inhabit low latitudes are darker, warmer in color, and more pronounced in markings. For example, tiger cats living in tropical America have more pronounced spots than short-tailed cats, and the undertone also appears bright yellow.
Short-tailed cat cubs
Another feature of the Canadian lynx is that the soles of the feet are large and have long, thick hairs on the meat pads, like non-slip snow boots. The hind feet of the short-tailed cat are only 16.3-18.5 cm long, while the Canadian lynx is 21.5–25 cm long. The soles of the Canadian lynx can carry twice as much weight as the short-tailed cats, making them ideal for walking on deep, fluffy snow.
In addition, the short-tailed cat has shorter body hair, far less hair than the Canadian lynx, and metabolic experiments have shown that its body temperature regulation ability is also inferior to the latter. Thus, the northern limit of the short-tailed cat's distribution is southern Canada, and the Canadian lynx can even live near the Arctic Circle. Low temperatures and deep snow together limit the short-tailed cat's northward journey, making the Canadian lynx the only cat to monopolize the wild world of the Americas.
A diagram distinguishes the Canadian lynx from the short-tailed cat
The genus lynx is a very specific species in the cat subfamily, and some of the characteristics of the short-tailed cat are between the three "lynx" and the typical cat genus, which reflects both the fact that the short-tailed cat was first separated from the lynx genus and the adaptation of the short-tailed cat and the lynx to their respective habitats and feeding habits.
In the eyes of early naturalists, the short-tailed cat, although very distinctive, can still be called "cat", while the lynx is too personal to have another name. In the feline family, the lynx is the only animal that is neither a cat nor a lion, tiger or leopard.
Iberian lynx
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > who is afraid of whom when the two meet? </h1>
Among the lynx families, Eurasian male lynx have an average of 21-25 kg, ranking first. Iberian lynx males average about 13 kg, ranking second. The Canadian lynx and the short-tailed cat, most people think that the former is larger, just look at the body length is indeed so, but do not forget that the short-tailed cat is thicker.
Canadian lynx cubs
Zoologists have found that Canadian lynx everywhere are almost average in size, and adult males average about 11 kilograms. The short-tailed cat varies greatly in different regions, and the overall trend is that the north is small in the south and the east and west, such as the tomcat in the northeast of the United States, which averages about 13 kg, while California is only 6.8 kg.
The individual differences in short-tailed cats are also more obvious, some individuals can grow very large, many parts of the United States have more than 22 kilograms recorded, there is a large male cat in southeastern Ontario, Canada, even reached a staggering 31 kilograms; and the largest record of Canadian lynx did not exceed 20 kilograms.
Considering that the sex type II differences of short-tailed cats are more significant, and female short-tailed cats are significantly smaller than female lynx, the Canadian lynx is indeed larger than the short-tailed cat in terms of the overall species average. However, the males of both sides, especially the northern short-tailed cat and the lynx in the overlapping distribution area, the short-tailed cat is averagely and the large individual is dominant.
On Breton Island in the northeastern corner of the United States, the Canadian lynx used to be common everywhere on the island. Later, short-tailed cats invaded the island, causing the density of lynx in low altitudes to drop considerably. The lynx maintained a high density only at high altitudes, where the snow depth in winter exceeded 75 centimeters, and short-tailed cats without "snow boots" could not survive. A similar situation has been found in studies in the West Tribe's Kishan area of the United States, where lynx are forced to retreat to high snowy depths in the mountains in the face of the aggressive expansion of short-tailed cats.
Rocky Mountain wild photo of the Canadian Lynx vs. Short-tailed Cat
We can also use fishing mink as a reference to compare the strength of the Canadian lynx and the short-tailed cat. In Maine, fishing minks take advantage of the deep winter snow to kill many Canadian lynx, and although this only happens in certain circumstances, fishing minks cannot threaten short-tailed cats under any circumstances. Conversely, in California, Montana and Minnesota, the short-tailed cat is the main natural predator of fishing mink, and the killing of short-tailed cats even seriously threatens the recovery and expansion of fishing mink populations. The Canadian lynx, although occasionally killing fishing mink, is a few isolated cases.
In Minnesota, zoologists have found hybridization between short-tailed cats and Canadian lynxes, and 15% of so-called "lynxes" are actually hybrid offspring of short-tailed cats and lynxes. These hybrids, without exception, are short-tailed cats as fathers and Canadian lynx as mothers, which indicates that the male short-tailed cats robbed the male lynx's mates and "raped" the female lynx, not the other way around.
There are indications that the short-tailed cat has a clear advantage in the competition with the Canadian lynx. The long-term use of snowshoe rabbits as the only staple food has led to a significant degradation of the Canadian lynx's combat ability and aggression, and it is naturally not a rival to the fierce and aggressive short-tailed cat.