GLACIER NATIONAL PARK — Tracking the missing lynx through the drift depths of Glacier National Park, a small team of biologists is hoping to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding this most secretive of forest dwellers.

And the legwork -- or ski work or snowshoe work, as the case may be -- comes at an especially important time, as the elusive lynx may soon be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

"The idea is to provide more information that can be used if the lynx is listed," said park biologist Steve Gniadek. "We can't effectively manage the species until we learn more about the animal. The more we learn, the farther ahead of the curve we can be if and when the time comes."

And learning, Gniadek said, means hours of slogging through the park's wintry wilds. Two full-time trackers, one on each side of the Continental Divide, have been joined by two volunteers, following ridgelines and river bottoms in search of prints in the snow.

Sometimes they're out for the day; other times, they stay overnight in back-country cabins or tents, armed with survival gear and avalanche rescue tools.

Ostensibly, they're out there to find lynx tracks, but along the way they're noting the tracks of other small forest carnivores such as fishers and wolverines. They are documenting every track they see, from wolves to wood squirrels, ptarmigans to porcupines.

"We hope to establish where the lynx are," Gniadek said. "This study is not concerned with how many lynx might be out there; a true population study might require hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of research."

So how many lynx does he estimate are roaming Glacier Park?

"I wouldn't even touch that," he said, declining even to say if he thought the number was somewhere between three and 300. "We know so little about this animal," he said, "it wouldn't make sense to just pick a number out of the air and guess. No one knows."

But if the biologists can determine where lynx live in the park, they can go back in future years, establishing a sense of how the species is faring. And if the track survey is a success, Gniadek said, biologists may look to other methods, such as snagging lynx hair and using DNA analysis to identify individual animals.

That DNA method is already being pioneered for grizzly bears by Glacier Park researcher Kate Kendall, and for lynx by independent biologist John Weaver. Other future options, Gniadek said, might include trapping and radio-collaring lynx, a more expensive endeavor for which funding is uncertain.

"That (the DNA research) is an exciting thought," said Rick Yates, who has been conducting track surveys in Glacier since 1994. "But it all comes down to money, and money is a tricky business."

This year, Yates said, researchers were able to hire full-time trackers for the first time, combining a grant from Canon, USA, and a portion of fee money collected at park entrance stations.

"Canon has been very generous to Glacier," Yates said. "They've enabled us to do a lot of things we wouldn't have otherwise been able to do."

Both funding sources provide "soft money," however, which cannot be banked on for coming years. And according to Yates, coming years is what it will take to get even the most tenuous handle on the mysterious lynx.

With more than two months behind them, the trackers have found only one lynx print in the snow; a sloppy and blurred blob standing out against the rain-slushed snow of the park's east side.

"This could take a while," Yates admitted.

One of the reasons tracks are so hard to come by is the wilderness nature of the lynx. Another is that there may not be many animals out there to leave tracks.

Lynx habitat here in Montana consists primarily of large, remote subalpine and coniferous forests that offer denning sites and deep cover. The cat - with its distinctive ear tufts and black-tipped tail - often roams a wilderness home range of up to 100 square miles.

It's tracks are generally somewhat larger than mountain lion tracks, and are blurred by heavy fur on the footpad. The oversized paw measures about 4 1/2 inches across, although the cat's 28-inch stride is far short of a lion's 40-inch reach. Those overly large paws, Yates said, help lynx float atop the snow.

The Canada lynx once roamed 16 northern states from Maine to Washington, feeding on a highly specialized diet of snowshoe hares. Now, the cat has viable populations in Maine, Washington, Montana, and, possibly, Minnesota.

Spot sightings in other states indicate small - but not sustainable - populations.

In 1994, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks estimated the lynx population here at just over 1,000 and falling. Conservationists, however, have challenged that count, which is far higher than any other state's report. The state recently acknowledged sagging lynx populations, changing Montana's seasonal trapping quota from 135 to two.

"I've been doing sporadic track surveys since 1994," Yates said, "and I've only seen a couple sets of lynx tracks per year on average. That's why it's so important to have full-time people in the field."

According to Yates, both the Forest Service and state wildlife officials also have people in the field, and the park, he said is building its monitoring program to mimic those already in place.

"All of this should jibe," he said. "We're all using the same protocol and methodology, so the data should all be comparable."

And that data, researchers hope, should help set the course if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides to protect lynx as a threatened or endangered species.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which initially proposed the listing, has said major threats to lynx include habitat loss, trapping, lack of regulatory protection, urbanization, ski resorts and developments like packed snowmobile trails that allow lynx competitors like bobcats and coyotes into lynx habitat.

Public comment on the proposal to list lynx closed last fall, and a decision is expected to be released by mid-summer.

"It's really pretty remarkable how little we know about animals' winter use of the park in general and lynx in particular," Yates said. "But we may soon be faced with drafting a plan for managing lynx. Every step we take now saves time and money later. And everything we learn about lynx is something we didn't know before."

1999 NEWS:

Jan 27: Groups Sue to Stop Use of 'Illegal' Trail

Jan 21: The Ways of the Wild

Jan 9: Trackers Seeking Elusive Lynx

Jan 3: Making Room for Wildlife to Roam

1998 NEWS:

Jul 16: Wildlife Crossing