Gunflint Trail lodge owner spots lynx hanging out on the porch
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The owner of the Trail Center Lodge near Grand Marais caught a Canada lynx on a casual stroll along her porch on Sunday.
Sarah Hamilton, the owner of Trail Center Lodge, said she at first thought her dog was reacting to a fox, but then noticed the length of the creature and caught it on video.
“He just went all the way around my house. And I caught him on the front deck once I got my dog under control,” Hamilton said.
As of Wednesday, the video uploaded to Facebook has received over 31,000 views.
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While Hamilton said she has seen them before, she’s never spotted them this close.
“They wander by from time to time, but this was probably just seven feet away,” she said.
John Erb, a wildlife researcher for the Minnesota DNR, said there isn’t a large population of Canada lynx in the state. They tend to be spotted more often in the northeast part of the state, in wooded areas.
Unlike other predators, like bobcats and wolves, Erb said Lynx don’t seem bothered by being spotted.
“As far as carnivores go, they are seemingly less wary than most. We get lots of reports of someone driving down a road and the lynx is just standing along the side of the road or in the ditch, just chewing on a deer, like a car kill,” he said.
“But I will say, them coming on to a porch is extremely rare.”
The DNR runs a lynx sighting database where the public can submit observational information of the big cats. Between 2007 and 2022, there have been 97 verified observations, like photos and video, and 27 probable observations of lynx, largely centered around northeast counties in Minnesota.
The U.S. Forest Service also tracks population trends of Canada lynx using genetic samples collected from lynx within the Superior National Forest. A 2024 report estimates about 650 individual lynx genotypes from their database.