Almost scared of my own yard...

[bluema]

We do have Bears here in TN, and I'm right at the foothills of the Smokies. Luckily have yet to see one around MY neighborhood, but they do appear in our neighboring towns.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Well, there's one predator I don't have to deal with.

 

[bluema]

yup, you'd have a better chance of scaring a cat than a black bear. They're fearless around here, and popular attraction for tourists with city sightings on the rise...

 

[LeafBlade12345]

I do wish we had wolves here though...may help keep the coyote and stray animal population down and they are such amazing animals...

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Oh don't worry, Lakota will not be locked up, he's the best deterrent there is. Trial and Error, that is absolutely terrifying. Luckily no bears here, but I'm mostly scared of the hunters shooting crazily behind our house. They take multiple shots at flying birds just a few feet away from our property. It is truly scary sometimes and I'm always worried for our five year old's safety. I'm hoping to get a petition signed to keep the hunters off the golf course on weekends, or at least have a limit of birds they can shoot set. They leave dead animals floating carelessly in the water....maybe they'll scare off the lion!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/science/11bears.html?_r=0

Black bears kill more homeowners on purpose than bird hunters injure by accident.

You may wish to rethink your wishing for more wolves to thin out the coyotes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wolf_attacks_in_North_America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America#2010s

This all (at least in my eyes) calls into the question the wisdom of allowing chicken predators to live and thrive because another coon, mink, fox, coyote, etc will only take the place of the ones that you destroy. With mountain lions, bears, and wolves interaction with human prey it seems that the opposite is true.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Well, it was sort of a joke when I talked about the hunters...and it states clearly on the link you posted that wolves kill few people compared to other carnivores. I'd take them over coyotes anyday. Coyotes, that are perfectly healthy, have killed people around here, some attacks quite recent.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Well I figured out who it is. We set up our hunting camera before we left town, then came back to a thirty second video of a bobcat walking past the camera...

 

[LeafBlade12345]

I'm debating on whether I should trap it or have Animal Control do the deed. Usually I live and let live, but with young children, a small dog, and plenty of outdoor animals, I'm a little worried. I don't plan on killing the bob, but perhaps AC can remove it to a rehab center. Opinions?

 

[Dianacatz]

I think you might want to let the bobcat be for the time being but make sure to keep a good watch on the cat. If it happens to get a bit too close I think you should think about calling a rehab center. If it is too close too your family definitely call someone. The same goes for if it shows any signs of aggression to your family or pets. I have young kids and would do the same for my family if we ever found a bobcat that was threatening to harm, or had harmed one of my family members or pets. Just keep track of the bobcat for now and hopefully he/she was just passing through. Lucky it wasn't a mountain lion though. That could have caused a lot of chaos.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

I think you might want to let the bobcat be for the time being but make sure to keep a good watch on the cat. If it happens to get a bit too close I think you should think about calling a rehab center. If it is too close too your family definitely call someone. The same goes for if it shows any signs of aggression to your family or pets. I have young kids and would do the same for my family if we ever found a bobcat that was threatening to harm, or had harmed one of my family members or pets. Just keep track of the bobcat for now and hopefully he/she was just passing through. Lucky it wasn't a mountain lion though. That could have caused a lot of chaos.

I suppose this is what I'll do for the time being. You just can't take risks with the little ones. Haven't seen the cat since, though we did catch him on our game cam. As long as all he is doing is killing wild birds, he is welcome. He was here first.

Regards,
Leaf