Bobcats- Please share your bobcat stories and mishaps and run-ins with bobcats

[ameliadanielle]

I have no personal experience but my dad is dealing with bob cats now. They have never been a problem before... until one of his great pyrenees decided that one of the neighbors was a bad guy and attacks the car every time it drives by. He rammed the car and my dad had to pay to get it fixed, now all the dogs are doing it. So my dad started shutting them up during the day and only letting them roam at night. Now the bob cats are coming up in the day and taking chickens off the yard. My dad is having to catch and pen his free range flocks now because they've only been going after the ones that roam loose. They haven't touched any of the penned chickens so far. I've got some babies right now from him. One of his free ranging hens hatched them out and was raising them on the yard. She got taken right after lunch, broad daylight, but the babies were left behind. We didn't know what got her at first. Now we're finding tracks all over. Two bob cats either fighting or mating right behind our ground blind at the start of deer season scared off all the deer that day. So they will be out and about any time of the day, to avoid being seen they'll choose times they know you're normally not around.

Around here bob cats love to eat deer. They normally go after babies and small ones, but deer aren't tiny things for long. They can take down prey that is bigger and outweighs them. I'm not too worried about them, because I've never heard of anyone being attacked by one around here. They normally run as soon as they see a person.

 

[aart]

I have no personal experience but my dad is dealing with bob cats now. They have never been a problem before... until one of his great pyrenees decided that one of the neighbors was a bad guy and attacks the car every time it drives by. He rammed the car and my dad had to pay to get it fixed, now all the dogs are doing it. So my dad started shutting them up during the day and only letting them roam at night. Now the bob cats are coming up in the day and taking chickens off the yard. My dad is having to catch and pen his free range flocks now because they've only been going after the ones that roam loose. They haven't touched any of the penned chickens so far. I've got some babies right now from him. One of his free ranging hens hatched them out and was raising them on the yard. She got taken right after lunch, broad daylight, but the babies were left behind. We didn't know what got her at first. Now we're finding tracks all over. Two bob cats either fighting or mating right behind our ground blind at the start of deer season scared off all the deer that day. So they will be out and about any time of the day, to avoid being seen they'll choose times they know you're normally not around.

Around here bob cats love to eat deer. They normally go after babies and small ones, but deer aren't tiny things for long. They can take down prey that is bigger and outweighs them. I'm not too worried about them, because I've never heard of anyone being attacked by one around here. They normally run as soon as they see a person.

Where are you located?

 

[ameliadanielle]

South Georgia

 

[beagleman77]

We live about two hours from Orlando but in the country woods everywhere is went out one morning and a couple of 4 month old chicks were gone and some were dead in the pen their heads were cut off of them and all the feathers were pulled of the neck you could see claw marks on the neck skin it happens every morning till their were only two left that we gave away so they would not get killed we did everything we could to stop it then it left us and started killing a niegbers chickens then it just stopped

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My neighbor who is a hunter, told me a week ago that we have bobcats in Southern Indiana. I was shocked but didn't worry cause I've not ever seen one. So anyway, last night I was in bed when I heard the sound of a cat .......
So now I'm wondering if it was a bobcat that killed my chickens...... Would a bobcat have killed my pygmy goat?.......

In a little more than a year I have trapped 2 bobcats and one of them I know had killed a pullet by pulling her up against the wire and eating off her legs like you would expect a coon to do. The pullet killer weighed 42 pounds and was a grizzled old veteran who had lost his left eyeball likely to another bobcat tom.

A good friend of mine was a game warden who claimed that he slept with the bears, and in his 45 year career he had less than 5 minutes of wild bobcat viewing time. They are out there, but they are sneaky. I also heard both of my bobcats get caught, and it was before 9:00PM no less. The thing that floored me was that I caught both these bad boys in a cage type trap. It makes me think that bobcats are loosing respect for humans. A few years ago a bobcat attacked a grown man in a New England state so don't sell the bobcat short.

At one time I had 2 to 5 Red Bone hounds that had free run of the place and those dogs kept all the varmints honest. In my younger days if I woke at night and heard my dogs treed I would simply pick up my .22 rifle and a light and go to them. Over the years a lot of possums and coons met their maker that way.

 

[hayley3]

@chickengeorgeto
It's really odd but here I see nothing but possums, but where I left, I saw all kinds of animals (owls, raccoons, possums, skunks) but not here. And something is attacking the possums..what could that be?

I can hear the screams of the fox so I know they are definitely out there in my front yard but have not seen one of them. The only animal I saw was a coyote 10 yrs ago but have not seen once since then. That's interesting about your friend not seeing bobcats in all that time. I have set up two trail cams and so far not one predator on camera and only one deer. We had a zillion deer where did they go? I saw a buck in front of my window right before hunting season...they normally all come here during that time and hide out.

I am definitely afraid of a meeting up with a bobcat outside at night now so I will definitely not underestimate them. If I was a big man that would be different...but being a 5'3" woman they could be more likely to attack I think, since I'm less of a threat. Although I know how to use a rifle, I rarely carry it around.

I'm starting to notice the rabbits' behavior. We had a LOT of rabbits so much that we called our driveway Rabbit Road because I would have to drive slowly to let the rabbits jump across in front of the car. Now instead of 20 on the road I may see 3. But some days we have none around I wonder if there is an animal stalking them on those days.

 

[hayley3]

@beagleman
Sorry about your chickens. It's really hard when you are trying to protect them and can't. You should've placed a trail cam in your coop.
I was reading about this woman who had a mink problem. She said the mink would kill a couple of hens but dragged some of the chickens off to eat somewhere else. I was told mink didn't carry off the chickens but she caught the mink on camera so she knew for sure what did it.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

@chickengeorgeto
It's really odd but here I see nothing but possums, but where I left, I saw all kinds of animals (owls, raccoons, possums, skunks) but not here. And something is attacking the possums..what could that be?

I can hear the screams of the fox so I know they are definitely out there in my front yard but have not seen one of them. The only animal I saw was a coyote 10 yrs ago but have not seen once since then. That's interesting about your friend not seeing bobcats in all that time. I have set up two trail cams and so far not one predator on camera and only one deer. We had a zillion deer where did they go? I saw a buck in front of my window right before hunting season...they normally all come here during that time and hide out.

I am definitely afraid of a meeting up with a bobcat outside at night now so I will definitely not underestimate them. If I was a big man that would be different...but being a 5'3" woman they could be more likely to attack I think, since I'm less of a threat. Although I know how to use a rifle, I rarely carry it around.

I'm starting to notice the rabbits' behavior. We had a LOT of rabbits so much that we called our driveway Rabbit Road because I would have to drive slowly to let the rabbits jump across in front of the car. Now instead of 20 on the road I may see 3. But some days we have none around I wonder if there is an animal stalking them on those days.

Possums imho are too lazy to keep out of sight. Foxes, coons, coyotes, mink, and bobcats are smarter than that. Also possums are short lived critters.

 

[fardar]

I'm so sad. I was having a good day and I was on the computer and heard a lot of noise, I knew something was wrong so I got up and ran to the chickens. I had 6 chicks when we got them one got lost over night. So I come out and see one of my favorite chickens in the mouth of a bobcat. I hate bobcats, I must kill all bobcats.

 

[hayley3]

omg Fardar, I'm so sorry.
What time of day did this happen?