U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agents and game wardens of the Maine Warden Service are investigating the shooting of a Canada lynx with a high velocity rifle that amputated one of the animals rear legs, according to Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Robert Rothe. The Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for shooting the lynx late last year.
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; The leg amputation compromised the adult male lynxs ability to fend for itself in the wild, and the animal ultimately starved to death, Rothe said. The carcass was recovered on Dec. 20 in northwest Maine, a half mile north of Third Musquacook Lake. However, the lynx may have been shot several days or weeks earlier and almost certainly had traveled some distance from the site where it was shot. Anyone with information about the incident should contact either Fish and Wildlife Service Law Enforcement agents at 207-469-6842 or the Maine Warden Service's Operation Game Thief at 1-800-ALERT US (253-7887).
; Male lynx have a home range of about 24 square miles. Wildlife biologists equipped this lynx with a radio collar in the year 2000 as part of a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife study.
; Information from the study shows that this lynxs home range extended from the Musquacook Stream between Second and Third Musquacook lakes, eastward to Squirrel Pond and Long Pond. The lynx had often been observed from the bridge at the intersection of the American Realty Road and the Blanchet-Maibec Road in Township T11 R11, Aroostook County.
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The federal Endangered Species Act protects Canada lynx. The federal penalty for killing a lynx is a six month jail sentence and a fine of up to $25,000. Maine state law also prohibits the hunting and trapping of Canada lynx.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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