By Tim Binnall
For the first time ever, a Canadian lynx sporting a striking coat of black fur has been captured on film. The remarkable creature was reportedly spotted roaming around a residential neighborhood in the town of Whitehorse in the Yukon territory. No doubt realizing what they were seeing was incredibly rare, the witness managed to capture around thirty seconds of footage featuring the animal as it was around 150 feet away. In the video, a dog can be heard furiously barking in the background while the seemingly unperturbed animal sits in some grass and the slowly ascends a set of concrete steps.
A subsequent examination of the footage by wildlife experts confirmed that the creature is a Canadian lynx with melanism, which is a genetic condition that causes an animal to possess an increased amount of black pigmentation in its fur, feathers, or skin. This is the first time that scientists have ever documented the phenomenon in this particular species of lynx, which usually sport fur that is reddish brown in the warmer months and then turns silver as temperatures drop. While melanism can sometimes to be an animal's benefit, depending on their habitat and living conditions, experts suggest that, in this instance, being entirely black almost certainly works against the animal's best interest when trying to stay camouflaged in the snowy Yukon territory's winter months.