OK, so for those keeping track...we share our property with many species of life.
Snakes of several types.
Cottontail rabbits, of course.
Birds of all types.
Lizards of one type.
Frogs.
Mice and rats.
Squirrels.
Skunks.
Skunks.
Deer that pass through on occasion (and rub on our trees!).
You can hear coyotes at sunset doing their howling thing, and they've been seen laying in our backyard on a couple of occasions.
Today, we discovered a new visitor to the farm...
A BOBCAT!
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| Bobcat, image courtesy of: Wikipedia Commons, photo by Don DeBold |
Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of it. 2nd Family said they've seen it once before lounging in our driveway. Today it was just a fleeting glimpse as it darted into some brush on the property next door, image below.
To say it was startling would be an understatement. I'm not sure how dangerous they are to humans. Heck, it wasn't much bigger than our biggest cat at home, LOL, but you never know.
Better to give it the space it needs and just move along. As you can see above, it was, eventually, a rainy day, but we got a lot done. More on those things in upcoming posts.
We have bobcats here as well, They are like coyotes in that they are skittish of humans. They pretty much run the other way if we see one in the back when we are on the four wheelers... they however are predators to our goats, chickens, etc. They can become a problem predators for sure. The people that raise cattle and goats around us, do not like them at all! I don't know if they can take a calf down or not. Coyotes I know can. We have a lot of coyotes here. We also have a lot of wild hogs. I have been told they can be mean to watch out for them. So they must not be as skittish of humans as the bobcat and coyotes are. We also have snakes, whew several types. I just hate them! We have more than our share it seems of copperheads. We are covered up in rabbits this year, I mean they are just everywhere and they don't seem the least bit afraid of us. Never saw so many rabbits as we have this year in the 10 years we have been here!
ReplyDeleteHOLY COW!! I think that is soooo cool. I am rather envious.
ReplyDeleteVery cool :) Only downside is that if you have chickens in the future, they will need to have a bobcat proof henhouse...
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing! I'd be a bit freaked out about a coyote and bobcat in the garden!
ReplyDeletewe have bobcats here and they are bad news. they can take a deer down in a heartbeat!
ReplyDeleteReally?! My large male goose fought off a bobcat one night, and I've never seen one go for an adult sheep or goat. Cougars(mountain lions) yes, but not a bobcat.
DeleteAs far as living with the bobcats, just use care with housing (your future) poultry, they haven't brought me even half the woes that the coyotes have. But even that was solved with the addition of livestock guardian dogs. We learned as much factual information as possible about the wildlife in our area, almost every problem we have encountered was solved with proper containment of our animals/plants.
ReplyDeleteOMG!!! Commenters... you're brave souls. That would scare me to death!!!! I'd be hiding in the hen house with the other "chickens"! :)
ReplyDeleteBobcat are common around here, but I've only seen one and that was one we almost hit with the car. We do have a cougar out back somewhere that the neighbor saw and a black bear has been sighted several times in the area, and we have a black cougar that lives nearby. That last one is not well-known but has been seen up close by quite a few of us in the area. All that being said, all of those are seen very rarely. The coyote is the biggest pest and seen or heard often around here.
ReplyDeleteThere is a part of me that is so envious of your wildlife, then there is the other part that is thankful that we can walk through through our bush with the only hazard being spiders and snakes.
Delete1st Man,
ReplyDeleteTexas has all kinds of wild critter :-)
Remember what Texas stands for???? Everything is better and bigger in Texas.
So if there's one bobcat in those shrubs guaranteed, they're more :-)
Be careful, and aware!!!! The bobcat is more afraid of humans but will protect for the babies.