No they aren't, bobcats have way more color definition and are considered "prettier", while lynx have way more fur. Lynx cat is just what the fur industry calls the high grade western bobcats.

I remember back in the late 80s to the early 90s I think, lynx were worth several times what a good bobcat was, now it is the exact opposite.

I remember those high dollar lynx days. I sent a lynx off to the auctions, don't remember which one, in 84 I think, but I still remember the 500 bucks I got for it!

I sold one to Dean for 600$ during the same time frame. It was a beautiful large and white long fur! No picture

The irony of the sky high lynx prices of that era is fascinating to me.

The anti's got riled up and got "spotted cats" added to the CITES list. (We will show those trappers....!) Lynx were not put on CITES, but they were determined to be a "look alike" species.

And "Shizzam....!" Suddenly the price of a prime lynx went from $75 to $250! Guess they showed those trappers!

Pete

I think the craziest, coolest thing I ever got on my trap line was a $260.00 marten!

^^^^
I think we may have each had one in the same lot. Was that about 2012 or so?

That sounds right. I think that was the same time I got $48.00 for my best mink. I had limited myself to just a couple mink sets for years due to poor prices, so when the mink prices skyrocketed, the next year I made a bunch of mink sets along the beaches, taking 18 off one beach alone.
Of course that great mink prices year turned out to be a one-off and took 3 auctions to sell the collection I had sent to FHA. Probably averaged $6.00 by the time they all sold.

Remembered another interesting occurrence during my full time trapping days. 1982 I stayed at the old village of Kokrines. Spent the whole 82/83 trapping season there. There were a couple usable cabins there and a smokehouse.
Kokrines is where the guy who built Melozi Hot springs landed his equipment/supplies and dozed a cat trail back to the springs. Pulled all his stuff back there on that cat trail. The trail still existed but hadn't been maintained and needed brushing out. Once fishing for the dogs was over, due to freeze up, I started working on that trail. I would take a small dog team up the trail and work on it with chainsaw and axe. One day I was a couple miles up the trail using the chainsaw when I looked up and saw the top part of a head and ears of a bear. I turned off the saw, set it on the sled and picked up the axe. Didn't have a gun and was concerned about the bear attacking. As I picked up the axe it stood up. It was a wolf!! It started jumping around and I realized it was in a trap. I was going to try and kill it with the axe bit it only had a toe or 2 in the trap and it pulled ouit and was gone.
I had never been up the trail before but, another guy had stayed at Kokrines the year before. I looked around and found a piece of moose hide wired to the tree. The chain of the trap was also wired to the tree. Threw the trap in the sled and did some trail cutting till it was time to go back. Seems the trap was wired to a Birch tree and when the leaves fell they hid the trap. Pictures are from a trip to the Hot Springs spring of 1983 with another couple who were trapping up the Yukon a few miles from me.

Way cool, MT.

This is why I come here .Thank you smith

I don't know if I qualify for a wilderness trapper, but I see a few posts on catching stuff by the rear end.
About 30 years ago I was experimenting with snaring cats on run poles. I had a pretty good conibear set I used on run poles but because of a restriction on the size of a conibear I could set out of water I tried a few ideas with snares on run poles. Reason for setting on run poles was to avoid hound dogs. I got it worked out and was catching a few cats but missing a few also due to them jumping the snare. Then I caught a bobcat by the tail, alive and basically hanging by its tail when I arrived. I thought what a crazy fluke, then I caught another one by the tail. I mostly gave up on the set after that, but I believe the cat jumped the snare and then backed into the snare when it reversed down the pole. I was using 1/16 snare cable, or I don't imagine it would have been able to cinch up.

I've caught lynx occasionally by the back foot in cubby sets designed to catch them by a front foot. I've tried to figure out how this happened and here is my theory: Male cats mark territory by backing up to something and spraying urine. (Their external plumbing fixture "points out the back.") Thus my theory is that they are scent marking in response to a lure and thus backed up to the set.

May not be true, but it is the best I've come up with yet!

Pete

The last few years I lived in Nome the trapping pard and I started using the Western Alaska version of the white 17 snarepole set. For wolverine. It was a successful set. One year, when we were far enough east of Nome to get into spruce tree areas, I made a giant marten pole set withe a spruce pole. The pole was large enough for a wolverine to walk up easily. Set a 3/32 snare. 8 in. loop, 8 in. off the pole.
Next time we had an adult male lynx hanging by his mid section. He had got his head, shoulders, legs, and ribs thru the snare before his rear legs/hips pulled it closed.
It was an odd catch.
Here's the western Alaska version of the White 17 wolverine snare pole.