The killing technique of Eurasian lynx

In 13 cases (ten roe deer, two red deer, and one chamois), the prey remains were found early enough for the bite marks to be studied. In all the cases lynx killed their prey with a bite in the neck region. In eight (62%) instances, the bite was from the ventral side of the neck only, in three (23%) cases only from the dorsal side, and in two (15%) cases bite marks could be distinguished on both sides of the neck. In nine cases we performed a more detailed autopsy of the region with the bite marks. In five out of the six cases (83%) where the bite was delivered from the ventral side, we could find injuries in the region of the common carotid artery (a. carotis communis) and the truncus vagosympathicus (Fig. 1). In three out of these five cases the laryngeal cartilages and/or windpipe were damaged. In only one case the injuries inflicted by teeth were restricted to the windpipe. Our observations indicate that, when biting from below, the bite into the throat causing suffocation might not always be crucial for the killing of a large prey by a lynx. The injuries observed in regions other than the throat could have been inflicted incidentally when the