A species of lynx native to North America, additionally Canada and parts of the United States, is referred to as the Canada Lynx, or Lynx canadensis.
Although the Canada Lynx basically has a light brownish-gray fur coat, there have been reports of black-furred individuals as well.
Black-colored type had never been captured, but in 2022, a lucky person was able to snap some pictures that suddenly went viral.
The animal was caught by a researcher at the University of Alberta, Canada. Thomas Jung, an employee of the Government of Yukon, captured a video of the animal on his mobile.
The discovery was documented in an article, “Paint it black: 1st record of melanism in Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis),” in the journal Mammalia.
The footage was captured in a rural residential neighborhood near to the Yukon metropolis of Whitehorse. The lynx perhaps seen in the clip relaxing at a distance of roughly 50 meters. There were some people and a dog nearby, and the lynx finally fled when the dog started to bark.
The behaviour of the Canada Lynx is that of a lone, reclusive creature. Although they were able to identify the animal as a Canada lynx, experts on the species were unable to make out numerous distinguishing traits in the shaky video.
It had a black coat containing whitish gray guard hairs throughout, as well as whitish gray hairs in the facial ruff and the rostrum and dorsal regions.
The majority of lynx species have similar coloring, with winter sightings of Canada lynx being prevalent due to their silvery gray coats. Their coats often turn reddish brown in the summer.
The lynx in the film is a very rare species because of its wide range of coat colors. As per to Jung, variations like these are often adaptations that may be helpful (adaptive) or dangerous (maladaptive) to evolution.
Melanism in any animal has not yet been evidenced to be advantageous or disadvantageous by scientists. But, Jung considers the lynx’s feature to be maladaptive because it results in a lack of important camouflage. The animal would probably stand out in the snow while hunting in the winter because of its darker hair.