Reader Michael from Idaho sent a video he made of a bobcat trying to nom his chickens. His report:
I have followed your website for many years as we share many of the same interests. I especially enjoy your posts related to science, atheism and religion and the wonderful discussions that ensue with the commenters. Also love the posts about food and wildlife.Because I know you have a fondness for cats I thought I would share this special encounter I had with a bobcat in my yard as he came to check out my little brood of hens. I keep them as pets mostly and for the occasional eggs.I woke up one morning this October about 0900 at my home in the foothills of Boise, Idaho to find a beautiful bobcat (Lynx rufus) casually sitting on my back deck admiring my chicken coop. I know he sensed my presence as I began filming him but he was not in the least bit intimidated. This was fortunate as I was able to admire his cleverness and beauty at close range for quite some time.Here is a link to the video in case you would like to see it:
Fortunately, no chickens were harmed in the making of that film. That’s one tenacious bobcat and some scared chooks! Were I Michael, I’d relocate that henhouse pronto.
Finally, I got only one photo for National Cat day, from readers Lori and Cameron (who own six cats):
Here is one of our cats, Spot, enjoying a delicious piece of turkey in celebration of National Cat Day! (Actually, this happens on a pretty regular basis, like every time we make a sandwich!)
And here’s reader Taskin’s white cat Gus (“earless but fearless”) getting special fusses for “International Gus Day”:
Finally, reader Emily from Florida sent her pair of moggies with the tale of them and a SQUIRREL:
I attach a photo of Calder and his sister, Pollock, and the squirrel who used to torment them from our balcony when I was a graduate student in Wisconsin. I call this “Fallen Birdfeeder”; the squirrel had finally succeeded in knocking it down after many attempts, and was clearly enjoying his success and their inability to intercede. I thought you might enjoy this as it includes both cats and squirrels!
Wow – Is that moggy on steroids or what? Look at those front legs – I reckon he is doing weightlifting!
Love the white markings on the bobcat’s muzzle. Also great shot of stretched out Spot!
It was the markings on the back of its ears that I found fascinating. Beautiful animal.
I like the lynx’s small tail and how the end of it sort of looks like the face of a tuxedo cat.
I also like the unusual perspective of the Spot photo.
But why do these cats have short tails? Maybe an adaptation to cold weather?
Probably, but the bobcat is a warm climate version of the lynx and became a distinct species from polar lynxes in the warm parts of North America.
Bobcats have spread northward in the last hundred years as they are more adaptable to human altered habitats and range over areas where the Canadian lynx was once common. Northern range bobcats are lighter colored and somewhat larger than the bobcats of the southern US and Mexico. Natural selection seems to be making them into the lynxes they once were.
The bobcats I used to see in Florida were long and lank and rangy-looking in comparison to this bruiser. They were also capable of stopping my dog (a Cyrus look-a-like) dead in his tracks with an icy stare.
I think there are popular notions about cat communication, and those suggest that the bobcat was being pretty polite about being watched by a human. Early in the video it pointedly looks away from the viewer and does the slow blink with its eyes. The ears also rotate a little bit away from the viewer. These gestures supposedly mean ‘I am not a threat to you.’
Yep. I’ve heard it termed “presenting”.
In the beginning, yes. But when the cameraman approaches, there’s also quite a bit of, “I’m thinking of making this my new territory, and I just might make a point of it.” The cat backs away as it would from a potentially marginally superior rival defending turf, not as one abandoning the field to the human interloper.
I would be extremely wary around that cat. You could reach an understanding with it, but your Cat-ese would have to be impeccable…and, even then, there would be a constant danger of an urgent trip to the ER for lots of stitches.
But with livestock you want to protect? And if there’re other non-Cat-ese fluent humans around? Probably best to respectfully and regretfully inform the cat that this territory is already taken. No need to threaten or be aggressive; indeed, such would be dangerous. Simply calmly saying exactly that in English should do the trick when the cat’s there. But you might also need to spread some puma urine around the perimeter to prevent return visits….
b&
And you have a ready supply of puma urine?
First you get a shaker of salt and when you get close enough, you sprinkle it on its tail. That’s what it takes to take the piss out of a catamount.
We call them cougars around here, btw. Cat’s got more names than it has lives.
Alas, not personally…but you actually can buy it for uses such as this. No clue who sells it…I’d start asking at the zoo, if for no other reason than that they likely get lots of other calls for it….
b&
and they’re the ones who ask the pumas to pee into a jar…
Yup — and you’d be surprised at just how many test positive for ‘nip! Of course, there are some serious civet rights issues regarding incarceration for casual use, but until the rest of the country catches up with Washington and Colorado….
b&
Very cool! I live in Colorado, and many years ago I saw a Bobcat while driving (just before sunrise), but they are now very rare down here. The one in the video looks quite healthy!
Very cool pic of Spot!
That bobcat is just like my tante at Tiffany’s 😀
I wonder what evolutionary pressures caused tails to shrink like that.
It happened when Ceiling Cat was doing laundry one day & He didn’t read the labels so he just decided to “go with it”.
Because they are named ‘Bob’. 🙂
😀
QED:-)
God chickens are stupid. I lost mine to foxes, but that is a very impressive high tech chook-shed he has there, so they look pretty safe. I reckon that Bob-cat has been luckier at other places, I wonder how the neighbour’s chooks have been doing?
Has anyone any explanation for the black and white markings on the back of the ears and the end of the tail?
What a gorgeous bobcat, and a fascinating video! So glad you ended with a shot of the unharmed chickens though, Michael. 🙂
That picture of Spot is hilarious, Gus is his usual cool self, and the last shot is a riot…looks like it should be made into a demotivational poster. ;D
Very cool coop! Any details as to make model etc.?
It is from Omlet,we’ve had it about 7 years. So far bobcat, fox & raccoon proof!
https://www.omlet.us/
It is from Omlet, called an egloo. We’ve had it about 7 years. So far, fox, bobcat, raccoon proof.
https://www.omlet.us/
I count among the top nature dramas I have witnessed, while coasting around a curve on mountain road in western North Carolina, surprising a bobcat in the instant it leaped to pull down a fawn deer in the middle of the road a few yards in front of the car. The bobcat immediately bounded away, no doubt disappointed by my untimely arrival. A doe poised on the roadside ahead joined the fleeing fawn as both vanished into the woods.
That must have been a fantastic sight! I saw a bobcat crossing right in front of my car on the Blue Ridge Parkway a few years ago. Think it was in Virginia.
“Bobcat in the Henhouse! (and lagniappe)”
Sounds like the title of an Earl Scruggs’ tune.