Natural History

The British zoologist Richard Lydekker writes in The Great And Small Game Of Europe, Western & Northern Asia And America: Their Distribution, Habits, And Structure (1901):

For accurate information regarding this lynx (which was first named by the German naturalist Guldenstadt in the year 1777) and its numerous local races we are entirely dependent upon the writings of modern American naturalists, there being no series of specimens in England sufficiently large to admit of an independent opinion being formed with regard to certain disputed points. By some English writers, notably the late Professor St. George Mivart, the red lynx was regarded as nothing more than a local phase of the common lynx; but this view has been shown by Mr. Outram Bangs to be quite untenable, the skulls of the common and the red lynx being easily distinguishable by certain characters of the hinder part of the palate. To point out the details of this difference in a work of the present nature would obviously be out of place, and the reader must accordingly be content with the fact that such differences do exist. So important, indeed, are these differences considered by the gentle man mentioned, that he refers the common lynx to one subgenus, under the name of Lynx, while he separates the red lynx as a distinct subgeneric group with the title of Cervaria. Mr. Bangs l also considers that the red lynxes of eastern North America are specifically distinct from those of the western side of the continent, regarding the former as the true Lynx rufa (or L. rufus, as, perpetuating an original typographical error, he prefers to spell it), while the latter are assigned to Lynx fasciatus of Rafinesque. He also separates the Florida and the Texas red lynxes as a third species of Cervaria, and the Nova Scotian representative of this type as a fourth. The differences relied upon seem to be chiefly connected with the skull and bodily form. But the possibility of intergradation between these three groups is suggested; and even if this prove not to be the case, they are evidently so closely allied that, in the opinion of the present writer, they seem best regarded as local races, or phases, of a single widely spread and variable specific type. This is indeed the view of Mr. F. W. True, who writes as follows : — “The spotted form of the bay lynx, found in Texas, and the banded form, found in Oregon and Washington, have been described as separate species, under the names Lynx maculatus and Lynx fasciatus. They are now generally regarded as geographical races of the bay lynx.”

According to Mr. Bangs, the red lynx, in addition to the peculiarities of the palatal aspect of the skull already referred to, differs from the common lynx by the smaller relative size of the feet (which is most marked in the Florida race), the larger area of the bare pads on the soles of the feet, the somewhat longer tail, and the shorter pencils of hair surmounting the tips of the ears. The fur, too, is shorter and closer. In the skull the upper jaw-bone, or maxilla, forms a junction of considerable length with the nasal on each side, instead of being nearly or completely cut off from the latter; the auditory bulla on the lower surface of the skull is deeper and longer; and the whole skull is narrower, especially in the region of the muzzle. As regards the teeth, the tusks are said to be stouter and the lower molar smaller than in the common lynx.

As is indicated by its scientific and popular names, this lynx, in the summer coat, is redder than the common species; this red tinge, which in winter is restricted to the flanks, making its appearance in the typical race about February. The backs of the ears are black, with a larger or smaller greyish triangular patch; the upper lip has a more or less conspicuous black mark, and the tip of the tail may be white, with several half-rings of black above, but in other cases is black. The amount of dark spotting and striping on the back varies in the different races.

In the proportionately longer tail, the shorter ear-pencils, and the relations of the maxillae to the nasal bones, the red lynx departs less widely from more typical representatives of the genus Felis, such as the jungle-cat, than does the common lynx. The present species is a more southerly type than the latter, ranging as far south as Mexico.

In habits this lynx is doubtless nearly if not precisely similar to the common species. By American sportsmen it is usually termed the wild cat. In severe weather, according to Mr. Herrick, it is often compelled to prey upon porcupines in order to secure a living, and not unfrequently [sic] pays for its rashness with its life, examples having been killed in which the head and throat were transfixed with porcupine-quills (pg. 408-409).

The terms “red lynx” or “bay lynx” are not commonly used now. Lydekker preferred to use the name “Lynx rufa,” but we’ve since moved to “Lynx rufus.”

I have a field guide that was published in the 90s that calls them Felis rufus, but we now classify the bobcat and the other three species of lynx in their own Lynx genus.

But it was confusing for nineteenth and early twentieth century naturalists. What made it confusing was the American colloquial name for the bobcat.  If you call it a bobcat or a “wildcat,” you’re sort of implying a relationship with the wildcats of the Old World. This is probably because in parts of the South, often aren’t much larger than domestic cat, and if you realize that there are bob-tailed domestics, then you’re already going to think of them as wildcats.

And when most people living in this part of the world came from Britain, which had been free of Eurasian lynx since at least around the year 400, and they had no concept of thinking of a bobcat as a smaller species of lynx. It was easier to think of it as a species of wildcat, when you have no concept of a lynx.

To make matters more confusing, bobcats vary greatly across their range. The largest individuals can weigh over 40 pounds, but the smallest are roughly the size of relatively large domestic cat. Some populations are known for their heavy spots, while others are almost entirely one color (except on the belly and legs).  Some naturalists were of the opinion that these cats represented different species, which we now discount entirely.

Right now, we recognize two species of lynx in North America: the bobcat and the Canada lynx. However, there were always attempts to make the Canada lynx part of the Eurasian species, and I’ve seen them referred to as a type of Lynx lynx rather than as Lynx canadensis. I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. Canada lynx are snowshoe hare specialists, and they actually weigh less than the largest bobcats. Eurasian lynx, however, are quite large cats, much more closely resembling the large species of lynx which is the ancestor of them all. Eurasian lynx are generalist predators, much like giant bobcats.

But these three species are all chemically interfertile. The fourth species, the Iberian lynx, probably is as well, but it is so rare that no one would waste their genetic material with hybridization experiments. But I have seen attempts to put all of these cats into a single species, which almost universally leaves out the bobcat.

Strangely, the only two species of lynx that have been confirmed to interbreed in the wild are Canada lynx and bobcats. Eurasian lynx don’t live in North America, where they could interbreed with bobcats or Canada lynx, and there are no Eurasian lynx near the Iberian lynx’s range.

So to leave the bobcat out of the Lynx genus is pretty silly.

But it was so hard to classify them before we had a broader perspective on the cat family. There is no way you will ever get me to call a bobcat a “wildcat.”  I also think it may have been wiser to hold onto the red lynx name. “Bobcat’ might suggest we have deer-killing Manx in the forest!