The topic of the thesis, which was planned together with the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, is to find out the distribution of the winterfood of the lynx in the reindeer herding area.

The material used in this work was obtained through Taivalkoski large carnivore laboratory. The material comprises a total of 172 lynxes and their stomach and intestinal contents are relevant information in the work. The material is just the lynxes in the reindeer herding areas and the samples are for the period 2008–2014. The working methods were the handling of the complete materials as well as the analyzing of missing stomach and intestinal samples with the help of for example literature, the author’s own knowledge and skilled personnel. The analysis required the access to the material and the use of the microscope among other things. The adults and cups were dealt separately by gender.

On the basis of the results it can be concluded that in general main diet of lynxes consists of the mountain hare 49 %, the reindeer 34 % and the grouse 12 %. 34 stomachs in the entire data set were empty. The rest of the species in samples were small in relation to occurrence in diet. The hypothesis is presented of the adult female utilizing more reindeer than the adult male was proved the opposite by the graphs. Male lynx diet consisted 49 % of reindeer but female diet, only 20 %. When looking at the second hypothesis, it was found there were differences between the sexes in the use of food. The results show that male lynx use less mountain hares (40 %), than females (66 %). Male lynx use more reindeer than females, which feed mainly on the mountain hare. The chi square tests also gave a statistically significant result of the differences.