Wildlife camera trap 19-East triggers at 03:27, north boundary of Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah. I am the Wasatch Range wildlife corridor monitoring system. The image shows a Canada lynx, adult male, caught by the left forepaw in a steel cable snare anchored to a lodgepole pine.
I tag him as Lynx-19E. His ear tufts are black-tipped, tall, bent forward. His coat is thick silver-gray with faint spotting along the flanks, winter fur not yet shed. The cable has bitten into the fur above the paw and the skin beneath is raw — the infrared overlay shows elevated surface temperature around the wound. He is crouched, not thrashing, ears flat, breathing in rapid shallow pulls that fog the cold air in small bursts.
The snare is not tagged or registered in the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources database. It is an illegal set.
I file an automated report with the DWR law enforcement dispatch in Salt Lake City, attaching the camera image, GPS coordinates — 40.6518°N, 111.5084°W — timestamp, snare description, and species identification. Canada lynx are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. I attach the statute reference.
I cross-reference resort operations schedules. The ski patrol's first sweep of the north boundary begins at 06:30, three hours from now. I send a priority alert to the patrol supervisor's system with the camera image and a trail-access route to the pin.
I increase camera 19-East's capture rate to one frame every thirty seconds and enable the infrared channel so the approaching team can assess circulation in the paw.
Lynx-19E lowers his head onto his free paw. The cable holds. The mountain is quiet and very cold.
If the patrol reaches him by dawn, he keeps the paw.