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Lynx Conservation Under Fire
Critics: Federal Studies Skewed in Favor of Wildlife
 Listen to Allison Aubrey's story on the controversy over suspected lynx fraud.
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A female Canada lynx heads for the woods after being released near South Fork, Colo.
Photo: AP/Jack Smith |
Feb. 21, 2002 --
The movements of a small, wild animal have become the center of an upcoming congressional inquiry. The Canadian lynx is protected under the Endangered Species Act. They're found in the Rocky Mountain states. And for the last couple of years, federal biologists have been trying to figure out how many animals are left and where they breed. Now three scientists stand accused of trying to rig the study. For All Things Considered, NPR's Allison Aubrey reports.
Scientists don't know much about the habitat of the lynx, an elusive, nocturnal and rare wild cat found in parts of North America. Mike Schwartz, a wildlife biologist studying lynx with the U.S. Forest Service, has only seen the animal a few times.
"I remember the first time I saw a lynx -- you know, they have these big eyes, and they see you long before you ever see them. And it's just an amazing experience to get to see an animal that not many people get to see," says Schwartz. "They're absolutely beautiful animals."
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"I remember the first time I saw a lynx -- you know, they have these big eyes, and they see you long before you ever see them. And it's just an amazing experience to get to see an animal that not many people get to see.... They're absolutely beautiful animals."
Mike Schwartz, a wildlife biologist studying lynx with the U.S. Forest Service
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Schwartz' aim was to figure out if lynx stay isolated in small groups, or if the animals travel wide distances to intermingle and breed. Knowing that will help determine how much habitat is needed to protect the species, which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Schwartz concluded that lynx do disperse widely. He published this finding in a recent issue of the Journal Nature. His work adds to a broader effort by the Forest Service to determine the viability of the endangered lynx. This wider project -- known as the National Lynx Survey -- involves hundreds of biologists. These national survey biologists have been collecting lynx hair samples from dens and tree branches to analyze their genetic make-up. This survey has now become the center of a controversy that has drawn the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Last year three biologists were discovered to have deliberately mislabeled samples of lynx hair. They took strands of hair from captive lynx and passed them off as samples found in forests where lynx had never been seen. The researchers insist that no fraud was intended. They say they wanted to test the accuracy of the lab that was doing the DNA analysis of the hair. A Forest Service investigator charged with reviewing the case withheld judgment on the scientists' intent, but concluded that the three biologists broke the rules of the study.
"You have to be able to count on the integrity of the data stream when you're a scientist. And in this case, the data stream was corrupted," says Scott Mills, a University of Montana researcher and leader of the national lynx survey.
One of the scientists has taken early retirement. The others have transferred to new jobs.
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"They want to get people off land and into cities. They want to preserve open space and this lynx debacle shows the lengths they're willing to go to further this agenda."
Russ Brooks of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which contends some government studies are skewed in favor of wildlife.
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The story might well have ended there. Then, last December, the story broke in the local press and new accusations began to fly. Because the lynx are protected under the Endgangered Species Act, their presence in a forest gives the government the right to restrict access to the land. Some property owners and anti-government activists accused the biologists of faking the samples in an effort to stop logging and development.
Russ Brooks of the Pacific Legal Foundation says the U.S. Forest Service is out to advance an agenda that protects trees and animals at the expense of people and local economies.
"They want to get people off land and into cities. They want to preserve open space and this lynx debacle shows the lengths they're willing to go to further this agenda. " Members of the House Committee on Resources have now decided to investigate the case. Lee Mitchell, of a non-profit group called PEER that advocates on behalf of federal employees, argues this controversy has been blown out of proportion. She argues the members of Congress who have made it an issue are trying to undermine the Endangered Species Act.
"I think what's going on here is this incident has become a lightening rod to attack the E.S.A. and the agencies and employees responsible for implementing it."
Members of Congress are calling federal biologists to testify at a House Resources Committee hearing on March 6.
Editor's note: In an earlier version of this story, NPR reported that a Congressional committee has called a hearing to investigate allegations of fraud in research on the Canada lynx. We wrote online that wildlife biologist Michael Schwartz's "work -- and that of nearly 500 other scientists involved in the national lynx survey -- is now embroiled in controversy. Last December, several of the survey's biologists were accused of rigging results by mislabeling hairs to pass them off as having come from captive lynx in forests where the anumals had never been spotted."
In fact, Michael Schwartz's work on the lynx, published recently in Nature magazine, has nothing to do with the National Lynx Survey and is not currently involved with any Congressional investigations. Michael Schwartz wrote in to say of his research: "You have taken something that was not under controversy and now placed it under controversy."
In Depth
 Read other NPR stories about lynx.
Other Resources
• Read Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility's response to the Washington Times article that lynx biologists planted false evidence in a habitat survey.
• Read the USDA Forest Service report on its investigation into the lynx study. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Read U.S. Forest Service assessment reports on lynx conservation and its management strategy for the threatened species in the Northern Rockies.
• Read a lynx fact sheet from the forest service. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Read USFS testimony given before a Washington state joint committee hearing on the lynx survey.
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