Just as fairy tales invoke the names of mythical or extinct creatures, in certain scientific reports names appear that incorrectly identify one or another species. While it may seem a bit odd, even at the end of the 20th century, scientists have yet to succeed to come to terms with the biodiversity of large mammals, many of which have already disappeared or are on the verge of becoming extinct. Actually, from this very condition stem many of the mistakes in naming.

The most confusing condition with naming concerns the lynx (Felix lynx), a confusion which official reports and publications (such as the 1984 Red Book of the USSR, 1985 Red Book of Turkmenistan, and 1995 Mammals of Turkmenistan) have failed to clear up. Formerly, it was thought that lynx lived in Turkmenistan only in the Kopetdag, and that only the Turkestan Lynx (Felix lynx isabellina Blyth, 1847) inhabited the republic. However, the scientific literature contained absolutely no reliable accounts of the existence of that species in the Kopetdag. Once, according to the 1905 work of K. Satunin, a lynx was bagged in the mountains north of the village of Kenekasir. This report was subsequently tossed about and cited from one work to another (Flerov and Gromov 1934, Ognev 1935, Geptner and Sludsky 1972). Later reports about sightings of lynx in the Western Kopetdag evidently refer not to lynx but to the reed cat (Felis chaus). Also questionable are the 1979 reports of N. Ishadov and E. A. Klyushkin about the killing of a lynx outside of the Kopetdag 50 kilometers north of the village of Babarab in the Gektepinsky District. Most likely, the carakal (Felis carakal) was the animal involved in that incident.

At the same time, it is precisely the Turkestan Lynx which has been identified in a different part of Turkmenistan, in the Kugitang, where my scientific research group encountered tracks of an adult on April 30, 1995 amidst a band of juniper between the upper Deraidar and Khajachilgazbab canyons on a dirt path. These tracks were clearly imprinted in the fine dirt, and the imprint of the front right paw had the following proportions: 58mm width, 61mm length, 42mm heel width, 27mm heel length, with a foot step of 44cm. Over the course of three days (April 28-30), the animal twice traversed along this path in the same direction, indicating that this area was part of the lynx's hunting territory. Additionally, there was a relatively high density of hares (Lepus capensis) in this area; along an analogous path, we encountered four of these animals.

Only Marochkina (1995) had reported earlier about the existence of lynx in the Kugitang, drawing upon the working papers of the Kugitang Zapovednik (Tekhniko-Ekonomicheskoe Obosnovanie..., 1985). The Kugitang is the only place in Turkmenistan where Turkestan Lynx is located. Reports of this animal in the Kopetdag (Ishadov and Klyushkin in 1979, Rustamov and Scherbina in 1985, and others) are apparently not accurate. The southwestern part of the Kopetdag has been researched by us many times and in quite a bit of detail. Unfortunately, we have never found any confirmation of lynx habitation.

I wouldn't exclude the possibility of a few individual animals crossing the border from Iran, but if one is of the opinion that lynx inhabits the Kopetdag, then it is more likely that it would be the Caucasus subspecies, which could enter into the Kopetdag from the Elburs, where it is a common animal (Harrington, 1977).