State officials have confirmed there were at least six more lynx kittens born in Colorado last spring than initially thought, bringing the known total to 36.

“We have now documented 13 litters for the 2004 reproduction season with a total of 36 kittens,” said state official Tanya Shen. “From snow tracking this month we determined a female we suspected had given birth does have two kittens with her.”

Earlier this fall, the state officials also confirmed sightings by southwest Colorado residents of a female with four kittens, Shenk added.

In 2003, Shenk’s team located 16 kittens born to six females. At least 52 lynx have now been born in Colorado since the initial release in 1999.

Shenk’s tracking team had suspected that some elusive females might have had kittens earlier this year. But batteries on radio collars have run down on some lynx, and at least one potential mother was especially wary and managed to stay a few paw prints ahead of the trackers in the steep, rugged terrain at 10,000 feet elevation amid Colorado’s remote San Juan Mountains.

The discovery of more kittens is the latest positive news in the state’s ongoing lynx recovery efforts.

“We have already received 16 lynx from Quebec that will be released next April in the core recovery area in southwestern Colorado,” said Scott Wait, a state wildlife biologist.

“Trapping in British Columbia and Manitoba will begin in January,” he said. “Our goal is to receive between 40 and 50 lynx for release next spring.”

In Canada, lynx populations rise and fall dramatically during 10-year cycles that have been documented since the early 19th century through trapping records.

“Lynx prey almost exclusively on snowshoe hares,” Wait said. “When the hare population crashes as it typically does about once a decade, the lynx population follows.

“Then as snowshoe hares recover, the lynx population again increases in response.”

In Quebec, the population crash has begun and most of the lynx in some areas of the province will die this winter.