WILDLIFE. More than a year after trying to spot one, GARAF (Support Group for Wildlife Research and Development) obtained images of a lynx with the help of a citizen.
In February 2023, a group of students spent a night at the Canimex Group outdoor center, neighboring the Waste Management landfill, to capture images of animals. At that moment, only the animal’s cries were captured.
Recently, a citizen and photographer, Marylene Audet, managed to capture images of a bobcat using a hunting camera, which also filmed a deer, coyotes and a fisher. This discovery was enough to rejoice the teachers and students of GARAF.
“It’s a fascinating situation,” said Pablo Desfossés, GARAF coordinator. We put a lot of effort into finding lynx. We knew they were there. GARAF wants to be able to tell the people of Drummondville that we have beautiful biodiversity here. We are currently increasing our efforts to capture photos of lynx and quantify their population. This discovery had an explosive effect on the students’ motivation.”
Now, Secondary IV students have the task of identifying the sex of the animal that was observed. To do this, Mr. Desfossés went to the location where the lynx was filmed in order to take measurements of the environment. Thanks to these, young people will be able to determine the measurements of the animal by projection.
The group also went to the forest to set up hair traps. These will be used to create DNA profiles of lynxes to better assess their population. GARAF will be supported by biologists at this time. Cameras will also be installed more permanently in the hope of capturing more images of animals.
“We are not specialists, so we asked for the help of biologists to guide us in the evaluation of certain parameters. When we do not have the necessary knowledge, we seek the expertise we need to properly guide students. We are fortunate to have a genetics laboratory which will help us a lot to identify the animals when we have collected hairs,” indicated Mr. Desfossés.
Conservation
Now that the presence of lynx in the landfill site area is confirmed, GARAF will attempt to improve their habitat. To do this, we plan to plant a few groves of fir trees. These groves are very popular with hares who take refuge there in winter in particular and establish their burrows there.
“The hare is the lynx’s main prey. We are therefore going to promote the survival of the hare to favor that of the lynx. These are techniques that are proven and suggested by the Ministry of Wildlife. The area is large; we can make several home improvements. We think we can observe population increases,” explained the teacher.
The data collected by GARAF can also be used by the City of Drummondville for its natural environment conservation plan. Awareness work among the population must also be carried out.
“Our goal is to promote conservation. We don’t want people to go on the trails hoping to see lynx. An example of a conservation action is to keep your dog on a leash in the area. The presence of dogs stresses the lynx and reduces the chances of reproduction. If we want to live in harmony with biodiversity, we must inform people so that it is done according to the rules of the art,” underlined Mr. Desfossés.
For Pablo Desfossés and GARAF are very eager to present their results. Moreover, lynx sightings were also reported to L’Avenir.
“There are very large areas with enormous biodiversity potential in Drummond; with Drummond Forest in the lead. We would like to arouse the interest of municipalities to go and see what we have in these places. Conservation does not belong only to GARAF, but to all of society,” concluded Pablo Desfossés.
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