THUNDER BAY — The big cat figured out pretty quickly that any attempt to make a meal out of the little animal waddling down the road toward him would not end well.
The encounter between a lynx and a porcupine was caught on camera on Oct. 28 in the West Oliver Lake Road area, where Cindy Long's family has a recreational property.
Long said that when they first discovered the images, they thought they were about to witness a painful outcome for either one or both of the animals.
"The camera takes a still photo before it takes a video. We saw the still photo of the porcupine with the lynx just coming into the camera frame and we thought, 'Oh what's the video going to show?' "
"But when we watched the video we thought 'Oh, that's one smart cat,'" Long said.
"You see the lynx's tail go up a little with interest. Then you see the hackles rise on the porcupine. You see the quills go up. At that point the cat just decides, 'Yeah, no.' "
Long said the trail-cam used to be located at a beaver dam, and has taken images of lots of other wildlife, including bears, an ermine, and even a rare grey fox.
"There's lots of activity there. We actually captured some great wildlife shots there," she said.
The camera was relocated to the driveway after a bear sunk his teeth into it.
For now, it will stay in the driveway with the goal of getting more pictures of a grey fox.
Ultimately, however, the family hopes to see video of a cougar some day.
"Many years ago, we thought there was a cougar on the property. We haven't seen a sign for a long, long time, but we were always hoping," Long said.
