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Trail homeowner pleasantly surprised by backyard guest

Keep cats indoors and supervise small dogs if a bobcat is known to be in the area

Patricia Nutini was pleasantly surprised to see a bobcat on her back door step Thursday (Dec. 1) afternoon.

“I thought it might be a bobcat because of the ears,” she shares. “Then it turned around and it didn’t have a tail!”

She says the cat — known as Lynx rufus — took its time to leave her yard, which gave Patricia a few moments to snap another photo.

“If you zoom in you can see the lack of a tail,” she said. “I couldn’t believe how calm it was.”

It is extremely unlikely that a bobcat will attack a human, according to alberta.ca.

Bobcats are opportunistic hunters.

If bobcats are known to be in the area, keep cats indoors and supervise small dogs when they are in the yard, as they may be vulnerable.

More about bobcats:

The bobcat (Lynx rufus), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America.

It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico.

It has distinctive black bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby (or “bobbed”) tail, from which it derives its name.

Bobcats reach a total length (including the tail) of up to 125 cm (50 in).

It is an adaptable predator inhabiting wooded areas, semidesert, urban edge, forest edge, and swampland environments.

It remains in some of its original range, but populations are vulnerable to extirpation by coyotes and domestic animals.

Though the bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it hunts insects, chickens, geese and other birds, small rodents, and deer. Prey selection depends on location and habitat, season, and abundance.

Like most cats, the bobcat is territorial and largely solitary, although with some overlap in home ranges.

It uses several methods to mark its territorial boundaries, including claw marks and deposits of urine or feces.

The bobcat breeds from winter into spring and has a gestation period of about two months.



Sheri Regnier

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