The family were headed towards Ragvaldsträsk, 15 km south of Skellefteå, where they are building a summer house. The meeting with the mighty wild animal took place near Gummarksnoret.
– We first thought there was a fox by the side of the road and slowed the car down, but then we realised it was a lynx. I was sitting with the phone in my hand but never thought I would have time to record it. But it stayed there for at least 10–20 seconds looking at us, Kristina says, who managed to film the otherwise elusive animal before it disappeared into the forest again.
– It's an area with some rocks and stones where you can sometimes see moose. But no one has seen a lynx for many years, from what I've heard at least.
What was it like to see such a rare animal close up?
– It was super cool! It was very beautiful, larger than I would have thought, and it was not scary in any way, just a fun experience, Kristina says.
Have you ever experienced anything similar before?
– I've seen moose, owls, deer and things like that but this was really a wow experience – it's so rare. I've perhaps seen a lynx in captivity previously at a zoo, but this was something entirely different, and it was such a pretty summer evening, everything was completely magical.
You had your son Amos with you in the car – what did he think about the experience?
– He asked if it was a tiger! He noticed that we thought this was something different and asked whether it's unusual to see a lynx, Kristina says.
LYNX
The lynx is described as shy and almost impossible to spot. Yet the lynx has on several occasions been voted the most popular animal of the Swedish people.
It is the only wild feline in the Nordic region and lives alone in the forest where it is particularly happy living in mountainous and steep terrains. In May-June the female gives birth to one to four young which she takes sole responsibility for.
The body is 80–130 cm long, and it weighs 15–25 kg. In 2022 there were 1,440 wild lynx and the species exists throughout all of Sweden except for on the islands of Öland and Gotland. In the wild, lynx live for 12–14 years.
In daylight the lynx can see as well as a human but in dim light it sees about six times better than us. The most important prey is deer but the lynx adapts its diet to what it has access to.
The lynx cannot roar like the large felines. On the other hand it can purr, miaow, howl and hiss.
Source: WWF