Tag: Voyageurs National Park

Rarely seen wildcat caught on trail-cam in northern Minnesota

“This might be the best video of a lynx we have ever captured, not least because the lynx decided sit right in front of the camera.”

The Voyageurs Wolf Project has shared rare footage of a lynx pausing directly in front of a remote trail camera in northern Minnesota.

“We captured some really neat footage of lynx this past year on our cameras but this is definitely the coolest,” the group stated Wednesday via Instagram. “In fact, this might be the best video of a lynx we have ever captured, not least because the lynx decided sit right in front of the camera.”

The Voyageurs Wolf Project uses a network of motion-sensor cameras to study wolves in and around Voyageurs National Park. But, naturally, other critters also utilize trails frequented by wolves.

But the Canada lynx, which hunts primarily at twilight or during the night when snowshoe hares are most active, is considered by the state to be a “rare wildcat.”

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the lynx weighs between 20 and 44 pounds and also preys on other small mammals and birds.

The stealthy felines tend to occur more frequently in northern Minnesota when snowshoe hare populations crash or decline in Canada.

The lynx has few natural predators, but wolves are known to kill lynx.

Watch: Wolf pup learns hard way that squirrels will fight back

Extraordinary trail-cam footage shows the young wolf receiving at least two bites to its snout while trying to secure its meal.

Trail-cam footage captured recently in Minnesota shows a wolf pup discovering that capturing squirrels can involve painful consequences.

“This wolf pup learned that squirrel bites on the nose don’t feel so good,” the Voyageurs Wolf Project stated via X.

The footage opens with a slow-motion sequence in which the pup sends the squirrel flying after receiving a bite on the tip of its snout.

It picks up with more of the hunt, at regular speed and in slow motion, including a second bite to the snout.

One viewer described the action as a “food fight.”

The footage certainly underscores that life as a young predator includes working hard for just about every meal.

The Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem is a vast boreal forest that includes Voyageurs National Park. The Voyagers Wolf Project, with the help of trail cameras, studies wolves in the region.

Bear cub ‘readjusts’ trail camera perfectly to capture variety of critters

A bear cub moved a trail camera in Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota and the results were ‘surprisingly good.’

A bear cub wandering by a trail camera in Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota noticed the unusual contraption on a tree and decided it needed readjusting.

After poking around with its nose, the cub angled the trail camera in just the perfect spot to capture a variety of critters. The Voyageurs Wolf Project called the results “surprisingly good.”

Besides several wolves from the Windsong Pack and the bear family with its trail-camera-adjusting cub, the camera picked up a bobcat, fisher weasel and—one of the more popular of the sightings—a ruffed grouse.

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The Voyageurs Wolf Project studies wolves and their prey, such as moose, deer and beavers, in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, which includes the area in and around Voyageurs National Park.

“This video is from this fall,” the Voyageurs Wolf Project Facebook post explained. “The bear cub messed with the camera in early September and all footage is from then until end of October when we checked on the camera.”

Why did the cub mess with the camera? Voyageurs Wolf Project thought it might be because of the camera’s scent or that it stands out as something different, since the cameras aren’t well hidden.

Photo courtesy of Voyageurs Wolf Project.  

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