iN PHOTOS: Penticton birdwatcher captures images of elusive lynx

When a creature bolted across the road in front of her vehicle, Darcie Arcand thought what she saw was probably a marmot.

But her husband, Travis Arcand, pointed out it was bigger than a marmot.

"So we slowed down and pulled over and it was just sitting in the ditch watching us and looking at us," Darcie said. "For a few brief moments there, it was amazing."

The Penticton couple stumbled across a lynx, a largely nocturnal and rather elusive creature.

It was about lunchtime, April 24, and the couple were driving to Mount Baldy, east of Oliver, and weren't far from the summit when the large cat ran across the road.

According to the B.C. Sierra Club, the Canadian lynx has a short body, small tail and long legs and long tufts on their ears. It was the cat's peculiar shape that caught Travis' eye.

"Its back legs look disproportionate to the front legs," Travis said. "It just looks really bizarre. That's what struck me as it was running across the road."

As a very keen birdwatcher, Darcie says she spends a lot of time in the wilderness and has never seen a lynx before.

"I had my camera with me in the back so I climbed into the back of the car and rolled down the back window and started taking pictures," she said.

Darcie said the lynx stuck around for about a minute-and-a-half and at one point got within 10 feet of the car.

"I was surprised by how small it was,' she said. "I thought it would be more cougar sized… it looked like a giant house cat just with a really tiny tail."

With their hazard lights flashing at the side of the road, another motorist stopped to check to see if they were OK and startled the lynx which disappeared back into the forest.

"A kind gesture, but not what we were hoping for," Darcie said.

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