A 10-month-old Canada lynx released earlier this month in Colorado's San Juan Mountains apparently has died of starvation.

"We found him Tuesday," said Todd Malmsbury, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "For some reason he was not eating."

Division biologists set free five lynx in southwestern Colorado this month, marking the first stage of a 3-year, $1.4 million effort to re-establish a breeding population of the wild cats in the state. Lynx all but disappeared from Colorado decades ago.

"We're kind of bummed out," said Gene Byrne, the division biologist directing lynx reintroduction efforts. "But we knew this was a possibility, that we're going to lose some. We've been saying up to 50 percent" might die.

Byrne said he believes it's worth losing individual cats for the greater goal of returning the species to its former Colorado home. Trackers have found evidence that at least one other reintroduced lynx has successfully hunted down prey.

But Marc Bekoff, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Colorado and an animal rights activist, said he finds that attitude repugnant.

"This is premeditated killing," he said. "This is a tragedy. It just breaks my heart."

Bekoff, who plans to organize a vigil for the dead lynx next week, said that if DOW biologists could have "predicted this would be a success and just one happened to get killed," it would be acceptable for the species to override individual survival.

"But (a division biologist) said this was an experiment, and you do not experiment with lives," he said.

The young cat, who division biologists have referred to as a "kitten," has spent the three weeks since his release roaming in wide circles around his release site, about 15 miles northwest of South Fork. About a week ago, he apparently walked right past an elk carcass.

"We thought if it was hungry, it would have stopped to eat," Byrne said.

Biologists also found track evidence that the young male cat had chased at least one snowshoe hare, lynxes' favorite prey.

When trapped in British Columbia, the young lynx was clearly hunting hares on his own, so biologists decided to go ahead and transport him.

"We took a chance, and we hope not to do that again," Byrne said. "Adults have so much of a better chance to survive, they have better conditioning, better fat reserves, better hunting skills ... I was just talking with the guys in the Yukon, and I said 'Please look them over, don't give us any more juveniles.' "

Tuesday afternoon, division officials flying in a small plane received a mortality signal from the lynx's radio collar — the collars are designed to emit a special signal if the animals wearing them don't move for four hours. That morning, his collar signal was normal, so he had died recently.

Trackers on the ground retrieved the dead cat, and the cat's body will analyzed at the DOW's research lab in Ft. Collins. Malmsbury said an initial veterinary exam suggested starvation.

"Starvation is one of the most painful deaths an animal can have," he said. "This animal suffered for a long time."

But Byrne pointed out that within two years, nearly 90 percent of all lynx in Canada and Alaska will likely starve to death, anyway. Lynx populations there, considered healthy, go through 10-year population cycles that track snowshoe hare populations cycles.

Populations there are at the peak, but as snowshoe hare density drops, cats will starve, Byrne said.