A protected Lynx in Colorado faces a hurdle crossing into New Mexico

Group sues over lynx protection in NM

The lynx fall under the Endangered Species Act

Updated: Friday, 20 Aug 2010, 11:46 AM MDT
Published : Friday, 20 Aug 2010, 8:02 AM MDT

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Environmentalists are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the Canadian lynx.

The agency issued a finding in December that the lynx in New Mexico warrants federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, but the agency didn't act immediately because it must finish work on other higher-priority listings.

The environmental group WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit this week, saying the animal will likely not receive protection for a decade or more because it has been put at the end of a line of 245 species awaiting listing.

Lynx have been reintroduced in southern Colorado over the past 10 years, and some have wandered into New Mexico.

Although the federal government lists the elusive animals as threatened in Colorado and 13 other states, they have no federal protection in New Mexico.

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Lynx Jinxed by State Line By SONYA ANGELICA DIEHN  ShareThis      DENVER (CN) - Lynx that migrate from Colorado mountain ranges into New Mexico are killed because of the government's failure to update a threatened species regulation, WildEarth Guardians says. The lynx are protected as threatened in Colorado, but not in New Mexico.      The state line divides a biological group of lynx, the group says. Some 60 lynx have traveled south along biological corridors since more than 200 lynx were reintroduced into Colorado as part of a recovery plan starting in 1999. At least 14 of these migrating cats have been shot, WildEarth says. WildEarth says the Fish and Wildlife Service should implement a "quick fix" by simply updating a 2000 listing rule.      But instead, the agency put the cat on a waiting list. WildEarth says at least 34 species on the waiting list have become extinct since 1980. A 2009 "warranted but precluded" finding gave the lynx priority number 12 on a list of 245 species waiting for protection.      This could force the lynx to wait "decades" for the protection it needs, the group says. Despite budget increases and the agency's promise to expedite protection for species on its waiting list, progress has been too slow, WildEarth says. It says that updating the 2000 threatened listing rule would be a simple, cheap and quick process.      Represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, WildEarth wants the 2000 rule immediately updated to provide threatened species protection for the lynx in New Mexico. Lynx are similar to bobcats, but with disproportionately large feet, an all-black tail and a more variable, spotted pelt. The Southern Rockies lynx, which lives in the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountain ranges, is a specialized hunter adapted to preying on snowshoe hare.