Juha Suonpää: Metsän kissa

A century ago, the lynx was on the brink of extinction. Thanks to legal protection, the lynx has made a comeback in our forests.

In 2025, I met Hannu, the “lynx whisperer,” for whom trail cameras had opened up the wondrous world of lynxes and a spiritual journey toward an equal encounter between human and animal.

Amidst the sixth wave of extinction, our only hope lies in understanding the interconnectedness of all things by observing our friends of other species. It is important to speak about beings who are in a subjugated position, because the better we know them, the more difficult and repugnant it becomes to kill them merely for amusement or a sense of security. Lynxes are individuals, just as we are. In the end, humans too will decompose and return to the side of nature — never above it.

We must now ask whether nature might still save us. Nature saved Hannu.