There are only about 150 Eurasian lynx in Switzerland and France, very few in Germany and Austria, and none in the United Kingdom, according to photographer Laurent Geslin. These small numbers magnify the most difficult part about photographing lynx: seeing them at all.

“For the last five years, I spent hundreds of hours waiting in hiding,” Geslin says. “This year, I built a hide near a cliff where I know the lynx comes regularly. I started [on] the 15th of January and stopped [on] the 17th of April, waiting every day—morning and evenings—and I only saw the lynx three times, and twice it was too dark for any decent picture.”

Why so elusive? The nocturnal animal is very discreet and