2006 Rescue and Release

"BobbyZcat"

Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are found exclusively in North America and are named for their stubby "bobbed" tails. This is a picture of a four-week-old female Bobcat kitten we named BobbyZcat. She came to the back door of a family's house in Coldwater, Mississippi two days after gunshots had been heard. The family looked for the mother and siblings in the thick kudzu around their property, however none were found nor did the mother come to retrieve her kitten. She was thus assumed to be orphaned and turned into MWR for raising, rehabiliation and release.

Hungry kitty! Under MWR care, BobbyZcat drinks a special kitten formula milk and eats a diet specially formulated just for her. Soon she will be eating live mice and other small prey. Once she is able to effectively hunt, she will be ready to return to the wild. Our very special volunteer Ronelle must care for BobbyZcat for three months until she is ready to be released.

Bobcats like to den under fallen logs so the mother will have a dry home to safely raise her two-three babies. As the kittens grow, their mother will bring live animals (such mice and other small rodents) back to the den, so the kittens can practice hunting, and they will stay with their mother until the fall when they are half-grown and weigh about twelve pounds. Bobcats can live to be twelve years old.

Adults have thin black lines on their faces that extend to their cheek ruffs or "beards." The backside of each ear has a large white spot—a characteristic of all nocturnal wild felines. During the summer their coats are a brownish orange with black stripes on their legs and black spots on their sides and underbellies, but that will change in the winter when their coats take on shades of gray.

BobbyZcat will grow to about two feet tall and weigh 20 pounds which is bigger than a house cat. They are nocturnal, and they like to eat rabbits, rats, squirrels, ground birds, turkeys, and even small or sick deer. Bobcats are silent walkers and place their back feet in the same spots where their front feet stepped so they don’t make very much noise by snapping extra twigs under their feet. Bobcats climb well and they can swim, but they prefer not to do it. Animals such as coyotes and owls may prey on bobcat kittens, however the most dangerous predators of Bobcats are humans. Lax hunting restrictions and the proliferation of roads and traffic are major threats to these beautiful animals.