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Bobcats Silently Stare From the Shadows, The Living Desert

699 views · Published 15 December 2012 · 1:54 · Indexed 6 October 2026

Channel: Melvin Wei · 2012 · Pets & Animals

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The bobcat, Lynx rufus, is a North American wild cat species that evolved from Eurasian lynxes around 1.8 million years ago and evolved into modern bobcats around 20,000 years ago. It has 12 subspecies. The bobcat is a very successful species that lives in woodland, chaparral, urban peripheries, forest edges, and swamps. It is smaller than the Canada lynx, but twice as big as the average cat. The bobcat's primary target for food is rabbits and hares, but it will eat insects, chickens, rodents, pets, skunks, ungulates, foxes, minks or even deer! Bobcats are territorial and largely solitary.

I have spent a lot of time in the wild this year, and gone on many hiking trips. I've seen deer and coyotes, but I have never seen a bobcat in the wild chaparral or riparian zones! They are truly elusive animals, and far less audacious than coyotes. The bobcat is crepuscular, meaning it is mostly active around dawn and dusk.

Bobcats typically survive for 6-8 years in the wild, but the record is 16 years in the wild and 32 years in captivity, making them long-lived compared to domestic cats. Bobcats remain reproductively active throughout their lives, making them a very successful species in conjunction with the fact that they will eat whatever prey is available to them. Dominant males will follow a female and mate with her continuously throughout winter to early spring. Pregnant females give birth in mid-spring and rear kittens alone. Usually 2-4 kittens are born per litter, with a second litter sometimes being born in late summer or early fall. Bobcats use small caves or hollow logs for dens. Kittens will travel and learn how to hunt alongside their mother for about a year until they disperse.

Bobcats face few predators other than human hunters. Cougars, gray wolves, coyotes, owls, eagles, foxes, and older bobcats can eat bobcats. Starvation, diseases, and automobile accidents are other causes of death for bobcats. Low prey populations are typically a much bigger threat to these elusive cats than anything else.

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