The Eurasian lynx is a master of stealth. It hunts mostly at dawn and dusk, stalking deer, roe deer and hares through the trees. Its spotted coat blends perfectly into dappled forest light, and its huge padded paws make almost no sound on snow or dry leaves. If a lynx does not want to be seen, it simply will not be.
Those enormous paws serve another purpose in winter: they spread the lynx's weight across the surface of the snow, stopping it from sinking in. This makes the lynx a better hunter in deep snow than the deer it chases, which do sink in and slow down. It is a built-in advantage.
Lynxes live alone and need very large territories — a single lynx might roam over hundreds of square kilometres of forest. They mark their territory with scent and scratch-marks on trees. Occasionally two lynxes will meet, make a strange yowling call that echoes through the forest, and then go their separate ways.
In Bulgaria, lynxes live mainly in the western Rhodope Mountains and are very rare. Conservationists are working to protect their forest habitat and help their population recover. Motion-sensitive cameras set up in the forest sometimes capture extraordinary glimpses of these phantom cats moving through the trees at night.