VIDEO: Lynx mum filmed with cubs near Oslo

The cameras, set up as part of the Scandlynx project, show a mother carrying a cub of six to eight weeks old by the neck, then chasing another cub through the forest, and then sharpening her claws against a tree. 

 

"The uniqueness of these images is that they show little cubs with their mother in the wild and what they do," said John Odden from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA). 

 

"All of these things are of course completely normal activities for a lynx, but I've never managed to either see nor catch any of this on film during my nearly twenty years of lynx research." 

 

Odden believes the mother is taking the cubs to have their first taste of deer meat, and speculates that the kill is just off camera. 

 

The mother, who was filmed in Vestby, a village in Akershus south of Oslo,is carrying a GPS transmitter.

 

Odden believes she will stay with the cubs until March or April when they will leave to find their own territories up to 500km away. 

 

Odden is leading the Norwegian part of a research project called Scandlynx, which is using game cameras to try and quantify the population of the notoriously reclusive big cat in Scandinavia, and learn more about their behaviour. 

 

Since November 2010, the cameras have caught more than 200 lynx photos.