Friday, June 4, 2010

How has the lynx evolved to live in its habitat?

Lynxes are active throughout the winter because its adaptations have enabled it to live in the snow and cold. Lynxes have evolved to their cold and hostile environment with a thick fur that covers their body to keep them warm in extreme winter weather conditions. Because of the lynxes dense fur, soft inner layer and outer guard hair it helps them survive in temperatures that drop below -45°C. The lynxes fur will malt in the summer and spring and only starts to grow its thickness at the nearing of winter. They have large furry paws that help function as natural snow shoes enabling the lynx to hunt easily and effectively in deep snow.

Lynxes have very complex needs for their habitat and in the spring and summer require different forest types to live with young youthful forests with their thick vegetation. For hunting their main source of food the now hare and find older forests for making their nest and dens. They require forests with rocky areas, bogs, swamps and thickets to hide from predators and to camouflage themselves to hide from predators. This habitat that they choose to live in provides some essential needs for the lynx to survive. Their habitat provides prey, den sites, cover and protection from bad weather and predators. It is essential that lynxes have somewhere to shelter and hide for their survival because they are heavily preyed upon by animals such as cougars and wolves.

Features of which that have enabled it to survive in their habitat are their large, canine colossal teeth. Lynxes have very powerful jaws to protect themselves from predators and danger. Powerful jaws also enable the lynx to kill their prey with one powerful bite. Their teeth are good for crushing bones, tearing, cutting and gripping. These are all good indicators that the lynx is a meat eating animal or carnivore. It is helpful to their survival that they are near the top of the food chain, with only larger mammals than itself preying on them.

Lynxes also have its eyes facing forward for excellent binocular, allowing it to judge distances. Because they lynx lives in forests or heavily treed areas they need good eye sight so they keep an eye on their prey and not collide with their existing environment. Unlike humans, lynxes don’t need to blink their eyes on a regular basis to keep their eyes lubricated. This is an advantage to the lynx on hunting to it can always have an eye on their prey.

The lynx aren’t fast runners like their close relatives but capture their prey to more of a canine approach. They lodge themselves into trees and watch their prey below; once they have stalked and focused sight on their prey they will pounce to kill it. They don’t use speed like their relatives but use their strength built from its habitat to kill their prey. Stalking their prey in the tree tops is a lot safer from predators because they can watch from above all that is happening. They can see predators approaching and also their prey below. It is an advantage to the lynxes survival because it lives where its prey lives, making it easier to hunt for their food.

The lynx is a nocturnal animal meaning that it will sleep during the day and hunt during the night. They have developed a special reflective layer behind their retina which allows them to have good vision at night. This adaptation is helpful towards the lynx’s survival because it enables the lynx to hunt at night time, away from predators.

Smell is very important to lynxes to enable them to communicate with each other.Tthey can also get more detailed information from a scent through flehmen. This allows scents to be picked up by the vomeronasal organ. This organ is found of the roof of the lynx’s mouth and it is particularly used to detect sex pheromones.

The external ears of the lynx are flexible and can turn as much as 180° and when listening for something the lynx’s ear will swivel in that direction. The lynx will move its ears in all directions to perfectly pinpoint the sound it is listening to. The feature that enables the lynx to hear so well is the tuffs on the ends of the lynx’s ears which act like antenna for an excellent sense of hearing. This helps its survival by being able to find prey and detect predators approaching.

Whiskers are found on the lynxes cheeks which is also an adaptation to its habitat because it is a sensory function which helps it to avoid objects in its path that is can’t see at night. If the lynx passes an object that touches its whickers, it will blink to protect its eyes from injury which is a good skill because its eye sign is then protected.

The lynx’s nose has an amazing sense of smell to detect prey from a long distance. It can pick out an animal and stalk it for a tasty meal. Another way the nose helps the lynx’s survival is that its nose can determine the temperature. This is good because if a snow storm comes the lynx can detect this and take refuge in the tress or in dens to protect it.

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