Lynx are perfectly built for hunting in snowy forests. Their enormous paws act like snowshoes, spreading their weight across the snow so they sink in much less than their prey. Their spotted, greyish-brown coat makes them almost invisible against tree bark and patchy snow.
A lynx hunts mostly at night, creeping silently through the forest on its big padded paws. Its favourite prey in Latvia is roe deer, but it will also catch hares, foxes and sometimes birds. Lynx do not chase their food for long distances - instead they get as close as possible and then leap.
Latvia is one of the best countries in Europe for lynx. Because forests cover such a large part of the country and human settlements are often small and spread apart, the lynx has plenty of quiet territory. The whole of Europe only has around 9,000 Eurasian lynx, so Latvia's population is genuinely important.
Baby lynx are called kittens - just like house cats. A mother lynx usually has two or three kittens and raises them on her own through their first winter, teaching them to hunt before they go off to find their own territories the following spring.