Fire severity shapes Canada lynx behavior: fine-scale movements and unburned island refugia

Photo Credit

USDA Forest Service Photo by John Squires

GPS satellite tracking technology makes it possible to understand how lynx use fire-impacted landscapes

Scientists tested the habitat-use response of Canada lynx to fire severity, heterogeneity, patch characteristics, and unburned island refugia in fire perimeters. Canada lynx increasingly avoided burned landscapes as disturbance became more prevalent within home ranges. At a finer scale, lynx traversing burns selected areas of low fire severity, high heterogeneity of severity, and near fire perimeters. Lynx also exhibited strong selection for unburned islands that supported higher snowshoe hare densities than landscapes surrounding fires. 

Scientists were able to learn this new information by collecting movement data from lynx in fire perimeters. This data provides highly accurate depictions of how lynx respond to fire disturbance across broad landscapes. This study provides the basic information needed to salvage trees after fire disturbance in ways that minimize impacts to Canada lynx, a species that is federally listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Publications

Squires et al. 2026. Fire disturbance and severity shape Canada lynx behavior: fine-scale movements and unburned island refugia