A wanderlust lynx, originally released in Colorado as part of a restoration project, died earlier this week in Union County near Creston.
The cat was wearing a radio collar and had been tracked in Iowa for approximately six weeks. It was hit by a car near Creston on Monday night and then euthanized.
“It probably was a blessing because it was severely emaciated,” said DNR Biologist Ron Andrews.
The lynx was approximately six or seven years old and would normally weigh about 40 pounds at that stage of life, feeding primarily on small rodents. It weighed only about 13 pounds at the time of its death.
A trip to Iowa was not the first long range wandering for this lynx. It had been discovered in Kansas earlier this year and returned to Colorado before taking off again on what would be its final journey ending in Iowa.
Andrews said the last reported sighting of a lynx in Iowa was in the northwest part of the state in the 1960s.
For more information, contact Kevin Baskins at 515-281-8395.