Lynx with leg trap hobbles into man's yard

A northern Manitoba man was startled to find a lynx hobbling around his driveway last month, its paw caught in a trap.

"It took me a bit by surprise. I wasn't sure if it was really a lynx," said Steve Kirby-McDougal, who lives in Thompson, about 740 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

He said the lynx chased a rabbit into his yard, but the rabbit was able to get away. After that, the animal milled around his yard.

"The animal wasn't doing anything, just kind of blinking its eyes and watching the cars go by," said Kirby-McDougal.

When the wildcat moved into his backyard, Kirby-McDougal shut the gate and locked it in there, then he called Manitoba Conservation.

"You could see the trap was packed with ice and snow, which made me think the animal's foot was pretty much done for," he said. 

Provincial and City of Thompson officials arrived and used a pole snare to catch the lynx.

They were able to remove the trap from the leg and release the cat back into the wild.