Rare lynx seen hunting markhor in Chitral

First known footage of animal hunting in the area captured

KARACHI: In an unusual occurrence, a team of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Wildlife Department and the WWF-Pakistan filmed a Himalayan Lynx hunting a markhor on the steep rocky cliffs of Chitral.

This is for the first time that the nocturnal hunter and highly elusive animal has been filmed in the area.

The lynx is known to be present in Chitral, as well as other northern areas of Pakistan, including neighbouring Gilgit-Baltistan, but it’s sightings are extremely rare.

The WWF-Pakistan’s and K-P Wildlife Department teams were in Chitral to film the Kashmir markhor within the Tooshi Community Game Reserve. The crew spotted a Himalayan Lynx preparing for a hunt. The lynx did not attack a large group of markhors passing by. Instead, it caught a yearling markhor, which was grazing by the riverside along with its mother.

The team said that when the lynx was sure that the 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2020.