WWF, KPK capture rare footage of lynx in Chitral

KARACHI: In a very unusual occurrence, a team of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Wildlife Department and a WWF-Pakistan filmmaker captured a Himalayan lynx hunting a markhor on the steep cliffs of the Chitral Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According a press release issued here on Friday, this is the first time that the nocturnal hunter and highly elusive animal has been filmed in the area. The lynx, locally considered as a rare species, is known to be present in Chitral, as well as other northern areas of Pakistan including Gilgit-Baltistan; although its exact distribution and range are not known.

Recently, Nyal Mueenuddin, WWF-Pakistan’s filmmaker and the KP Wildlife Department team were on a mission to Chitral to film the Kashmir markhor. While filming a group of markhors in the Tooshi Community Game Reserve, outside Chitral town, the crew spotted a Himalayan lynx preparing for a hunt.

The lynx did not attack the large group of passing markhors, but it caught a yearling markhor, which was grazing by the riverside along with its mother. According to the team, once the lynx was sure that its prey had been killed, it retreated to a nearby tree to rest.

The camera team waited for about an hour and a half before the lynx returned to the site of the hunt and began eating the carcass. With a river separating the crew and the lynx, the filmmakers were able to move close to the lynx feasting on its prey.

Afterwards, the lynx returned to the cliffs where it perched itself on a rock to rest and digest its food. The crew also captured drone images of the cat on the rock.