Bobcats

Awesome, 3 together that's interesting

Nice! I have gotten to the point I just watch them in the woods. Sighting one is so rare I really don't want to shoot one, would much rather just observe.

Wow, that's great and thanks for sharing. What state are you living in?

Wow! Do you think they are young? The reason I ask is because I have never known them to travel in packs. Thanks for sharing the pic!

Definitely not something I am used to seeing on the east coast!

I watched 3 bobcat kittens play directly under my tripod stand some years ago. They were there for 15 minutes or so just playing and attacking inanimate stuff. Mama must have been off hunting, never saw her. They were cute, but I'd never try to pick one up.

Friend of mine's boy shot one on my place one year. He had the pelt tanned and made a wall rug out of it. It wasn't huge, but 30 lbs ain't bad. I've seen bigger, though.

Same friend's other son saw a bobcat in a creek while we were dove hunting one morning. Grandpa (friend's dad) farms. He chewed 'em out for not shooting the cat. They WILL take new born calves and goats. My buddy runs 100 head of goats and his Great Pyrenees, Louis, takes care of all comers. That's one BIG dog.

The population is building here in Illinois.
I don't have pics available on this device to share. We have pics on our trail cams, I have seen them myself, and my son and I found a fresh road killed tom.
At this point, DNR has allowed limited trapping tags. No hunting. I don't have any desire to kill one yet, but if they are as hard on the turkeys as they say....the desire will arise.

Years ago, IL DNR began polling hunters when they checked their deer in if you had "seen any turkeys while hunting"
....a few years later, we had turkeys.
...then it was otters...
....then it was bobcats...
....now it is wild pigs!
Methinks I see a pattern.

They are very common here. They were classed as a Non-Protected species for years. Back in the 1970s the price of Bob Cat fur went very high. The Trappers Associations lobbied and got them classed as a fur bearer. You must now have a Trappers licences to harvest them.

Ranger Roberts said:

Wow! Do you think they are young? The reason I ask is because I have never known them to travel in packs. Thanks for sharing the pic!

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Bobcat are generally solitary animals. Most likely those are a MaMa and her offspring that are still with her. They are almost old enough to set out on their own.

I have video I took on my cell phone of three (almost identical to ones pictured in this thread) that I took while sitting on a deer stand one morning. They moved causally through the area, just taking their time. Sitting down at times.

One was clearly mature, the other two only slightly smaller in size than their mother, but still 'following' her when they chose to move.

We have a lot of bobcat on our property in Deep East Texas. I have tons of game cam videos but only see bobcats 'in person' a few times a year....and I spend a lot of mine time in the woods or outdoors on the property.

I see them all the time but never when I'm armed

I have them on my cameras often as there are quite a few in my part of east Texas. Never seen 3 together though...generally just one. I don't shoot them at all.....

That mama & kitty on the fence photo is adorable. I've seen them while deer hunting but have only killed two. That was down in Georgia where I was born & bred and lived for 62 years. I took them with a muzzleloader back in 1966 or 67 and still have the largest one's hide. I killed them just a few days apart from the same stand. Others I've seen were a thrill to watch especially knowing I was hunting deer and was armed.

Pretty cool. I rarely see them that late in the morning.

They surely take their share of turkey, but we have plenty of bobcat and plenty of turkey as well as plenty of coyote, coon, possum, owl, tons of hogs, and hawks, even bald eagle. The eagles seem to be multiplying in the last few years. I can't say all the predators don't affect the turkey population, just that we have plenty of turkey in the woods.

Did predator control on several large ranches for a dozen years +. The landowner protected bobcats with the exception of several pastures on two of his ranches due to the fact that he had small exotic species in those pastures which were susceptible to bobcat predation. This gave me the opportunity to get a few decent bobcat pictures:














Only saw three cats together on two occasions and both were mother cats w/their kittens. One of those occasions the kittens were nearly grown.

Regards,
hps

I shot my first one about 3 years ago while I was deer hunting. The thing walked directly underneath me. It was the first one I had ever seen in my life. I had it mounted, but looking back on it now I probably should have let it keep on walking. They are very rare to see in my area and I certainly won't shoot one again. All those pictures are great though!

Olympus said:

I shot my first one about 3 years ago while I was deer hunting. The thing walked directly underneath me. It was the first one I had ever seen in my life. I had it mounted, but looking back on it now I probably should have let it keep on walking. They are very rare to see in my area and I certainly won't shoot one again. All those pictures are great though!

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Primarily, I hunted coyotes for the landowner and occasionally took out a particular problem bobcat. In some instances any bobcat in sensitive areas/pastures of the ranches were shot. None of the cats pictured above were harmed.

They are fun to watch, but can really harm game. I shot this bobcat which was stalking/chasing a mature 10 point whitetail buck in a pasture containing Springbok, thus bobcats were on the "persona non grata" list. The Springbok are a favored bobcat prey due to their small size, but cats are not intimidated by the larger whitetails.



He now resides in my foyer.


Regards,
hm

Someone gave me some bobcat jerky once, it was the worst thing I have ever eaten.

jmorris said:

don't eat a lot of carnivores though.

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Me either, with the exception of alligator. That's some good stuff

Got bobcats around my county.........never seen one.
Buddy did in another county.

Bobcat, river otter.....rattlesnake.........haven't seen any in the wild yet.

Heck I haven't seen a gray fox for over 25 yrs at least.

Hookeye said:

Got bobcats around my county.........never seen one.
Buddy did in another county.

Bobcat, river otter.....rattlesnake.........haven't seen any in the wild yet.

Heck I haven't seen a gray fox for over 25 yrs at least.

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No fox or otter down here, but no shortage of cats. Don't see them much unless called. We also have an abundance of these.....would be happy to share.





Followed this track until it disappeared into a brush pile where I quickly lost interest. I wear a 10EEE boot and the track was wider than my boot:



Regards,
hps

We often see family groups of bobcats during deer season here in Alabama. They are quite common. We have a 4 month trapping season when they may be trapped as furbearers with no bag limit. There is no closed season or bag limit for hunting them (daylight hours only!). Cats with spots and white bellies such as pictured by hps1 above are quite valuable on the fur market. One lot of 10 such pelts sold at the February NAFA (North American Fur Auction) in Ontario sold for $35,000 that's $3,500 per pelt.