MUST-SEE: Lynx mom and kittens spotted crossing Manitoba road
The wild cats are well-distributed across Canada, but rarely seen by Canadians
The patience of one Manitoba Hydro worker has delivered an incredible sight to Canadian viewers: A family of lynx crossing the highway in the Grand Rapids near Lake Manitoba.
Shaun Kirchmann was driving home when he spotted some of the family poking their heads out of the treeline beside the highway. He turned off his vehicle and after a few minutes, the family -- the mother and five kittens -- gingerly emerged and slowly crossed the highway.
"It was one, two, three, I just kept seeing heads poke out of the bushes and I was just stunned. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, that's a family of lynx.' But I'd never heard of this many lynx being together," Kirchmann told CBC News.
Kirchmann says the kittens eventually kept pace with their mum before the family vanished in the trees.
The video was posted Thursday to Manitoba Hydro's Twitter feed, and by Saturday it had been viewed 100,000 times.
The Canadian lynx's range is almost entirely in Canada, touching every province and territory, though largely restricted to forested areas and mostly absent in southwestern Ontario, the plains of the Prairie provinces, coastal British Columbia, and the Arctic tundra. They are considered a species of least concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
