A camera trap has captured a Eurasian lynx at around 17,400 feet (5,300 metres) on the Tso Lhamo plateau in Sikkim, providing the first confirmed photographic evidence of the elusive wild cat in the state high altitude wilderness.
The sighting is significant because the Tso Lhamo plateau forms a natural transition between Central Asian and Eastern Himalayan ecosystems. Although the landscape appears barren, the area supports a surprisingly diverse wildlife community.
Camera trap monitoring has also recorded snow leopards and Pallas’s cats along with Tibetan wolves and Tibetan sand foxes. Their prey includes Tibetan gazelles, Tibetan argali and southern kiang, suggesting that the plateau supports a functioning high-altitude food web.
The lynx photograph came from a long term monitoring programme conducted by the Sikkim Forest Department and conservation researchers, with access facilitated by the Lachen Dzumsa community institution. The cameras had primarily been installed to monitor snow leopards and trans-Himalayan rangelands.
The discovery follows a confirmed Eurasian lynx record from Arunachal Pradesh making the Sikkim photograph the second confirmed photographic record of the species in the Eastern Himalayas.
However, researchers caution that one photograph cannot establish that the lynx permanently lives or breeds on the plateau. It could be an animal temporarily moving through the region. More camera trapping and non invasive genetic studies using hair and scat will be needed to determine its population, movements and habitat use.
The region also faces threats from increasing tourism, road construction, waste and free ranging dogs. Dogs can compete with wild carnivores for prey and potentially transmit diseases such as canine distemper.
The photograph challenges the idea that Sikkim’s high altitude rangelands are barren or wildlife poor. The discovery suggests that these extreme Himalayan landscapes may form an important wildlife corridor supporting multiple predators and their prey.