HIDE AND SEEK

Deep in the forests of Finland, the lynx leads a secretive life, so elusive that it rarely give up its secrets

- HARRY READ

FROM 9,000M UP, THE VIEW OF A seemingly infinite stretch of boreal forest gave rise to the realisation that our brilliant idea, hatched over a pint in the Green Dragon in Bungay, might not be so brilliant after all.

Meeting us at Helsinki airport, our guide and friend, Ossi Saarinen, quickly confirmed our doubts. “Most people go their whole lives here without ever seeing one,” he’d said. “I know you guys like a challenge, but finding a lynx is a bit... different.”

We'd spent the past couple of years haunted by Ossi's ethereal images of Eurasian lynx in the Finnish wilderness. We were desperate to see these cats for ourselves and had finally pinned down a two-week window to track them down. Cameras packed and expectations duly managed, we headed into the forest.

There's something magical about the lynx. It's as if it has stepped out of the pages of a storybook - a creature drawn from old tales and myth, slinking through the trees with effortless style. The bears and wolves of these forests usually get the limelight, but being smaller and less present in popular culture, lynx carry a more mystical, ethereal quality. Like all cats, their demeanour is confident and assured, their movements deliberate, their appearance elegant. They are a quiet pinnacle of evolution.

LYNX ARE CLOSE IN SIZE TO A labrador. No two coats are the same, ranging from soft greys to rusty browns and often patterned with spots. Indeed, lynx have the greatest coat variation of any wild cat. A broad ruff of fur frames their golden-eyed faces, directing the faintest sounds of prey towards their distinctive tufted ears. A short, stubby tail completes their svelte silhouette.