{"id":67941,"date":"2017-03-06T23:37:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T06:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-man-encounters-lynx-on-molas-pass\/"},"modified":"2017-03-07T06:37:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T06:37:49","slug":"silverton-man-encounters-lynx-on-molas-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-man-encounters-lynx-on-molas-pass\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton man encounters lynx on Molas Pass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:65b33f84-c6c1-4701-816b-adba95c2769c --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xfIFYz6qQ6c\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Silverton resident Dave Fiddler has been driving between Silverton and Durango for 26 years, but unlike other commuters, he never sees anything interesting \u2013 a car crash, scenic wildlife or an impressive avalanche.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m always the guy who doesn\u2019t drive up on the car crash, doesn\u2019t see the interesting animals on the road,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe my luck is changing this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fiddler was driving north on Molas Pass about 10 a.m. Thursday when he saw a lynx cross U.S. Highway 550. He grabbed his cellphone and took video of the tuft-eared feline meander across the road in front of his Subaru Outback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve seen a mountain lion; tons of bears; elk, obviously; moose,\u201d he said. \u201cI live up here in Silverton, so we see a lot of stuff, but I\u2019ve never seen a lynx.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fiddler, a captain with the Durango Fire Protection District, said he saw movement on the left side of the road as he rounded a corner near Little Molas Lake. He slowed, and saw the lynx slide down from the snowy mountainside and cross the highway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy phone was sitting right there,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m actually pretty surprised I thought about it because I usually don\u2019t. I usually just kind of gawk at it like a dork. And then when it\u2019s gone, I go, \u2018Damn! I should have taken a picture.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is not the first lynx sighting this winter in the San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/124837-lynx-ambles-among-skiers-boarders-at-purgatory-resort\">Several videos<\/a> turned up in December on social media showing a lynx amble across ski runs at Purgatory Resort while stunned onlookers stopped to take it in. The lynx appeared somewhat lethargic and is believed to be the same one that was <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/129235-wildlife-autopsy-reveals-cause-of-death-for-purgatory-lynx\">found dead<\/a> a few weeks later in the area.<\/p>\n<p>Wildlife officials identified it as an 11\u00bd-year-old male born in Telluride that was fitted with a tracking collar. A necropsy found a tumor in his throat that prevented him from eating.<\/p>\n<p>Another motorist photographed <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/123165-motorist-has-rare-lynx-encounter-on-molas-pass\">two lynx walking together<\/a> in December on Molas Pass.<\/p>\n<p>Lynx were reintroduced into Colorado in 1999. Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimate at least 150 to 250 lynx live in the state.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:shane@durangoherald.com\">shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>tuft-eared cat sauntering across U.S. Highway 550<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,28,2590,316,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-67941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-molas-pass","tag-video","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67941"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=67941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}