Winter is almost here, and one lynx family couldn’t be more thrilled.
An endearing video captured seven lynx juveniles wrestling with their mother on a snow-dusted porch in a rare encounter that the Alaska homeowner says is the second in recent months.
“I was just spellbound,” Cathy Newton, who shot one of the videos posted to YouTube this month, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “There are no words possible for how beautiful they are.”
The rambunctious bunch, whose species is threatened, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, first paid Newton and her photographer husband, Tim, a visit in September.
“They were running back and forth, pouncing on each other,” Tim Newton told The Dodo that month. “I started snapping away. I thought, ‘Wow! What incredible luck. This just beats all. This is just wonderful!’”
Photos and video show the litter having a ball on his porch while wet with rain. When they returned again earlier this month, new photos and videos showed just how much they had grown. One thing they’ve yet to grow out of, however — mama too — is playing.
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, lynx kittens will stay with their mother until late winter. During that time with mom they’ll acquire skills, such as hunting, that are needed for survival.
Most litters are two to four kittens, with occasional cases of six, so this family of seven kittens is very rare.