AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine wildlife officials have adopted new trapping regulations designed to protect the state's Canada lynx.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said Friday that the regulations for the 2015 trapping season were implemented to decrease the probability of trapping or injuring a Canada lynx.
Lynx are considered a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Jim Connolly, director of the department's bureau of resource management, said the new rules were "born out of an abundance of caution.'' They replace emergency rules that expired last spring.
Among the new regulations are requirements that lynx exclusion devices be used on all body-gripping traps that are set on dry land. Foothold traps on dry land also must have three swiveling points and the chain must be centrally mounted.
