Only once have I seen a bobcat in the wild. Very early in the morning on the south side of Lake Okeechobee, the bobcat was just moseying across a driveway on the far side of the road. It was an encounter just long enough to realize what I was seeing, and for the bobcat, I suppose, there was no encounter at all.
I was so lucky to see it! Bobcats are nocturnal, and solitary. Large portions of the Okeechobee shore provide good habitat for bobcats. They climb trees and swim, although I cannot imagine bobcats spending much time swimming in the alligator-rich waters of Lake Okeechobee. The females are territorial, and they have litters of up to a half-dozen kittens, who may stay with their mother up to a year. Female territories average about six acres, while a male bobcat may have a territory up to ten times that size. Bobcats stalk their prey and then pounce – sometimes leaping several yards –and they are efficient killers.
They often hunt rabbits, but they will also hunt game birds, chickens, insects and even deer, depending on where they are, what the surrounding environment is like, and what prey is available. Most often they hunt at dawn and dusk, because this is when rabbits are most likely to be out and about. Like other large cats, bobcats sometimes “cache” their kill if it is too large to eat all at once. They will cover the kill with grass, dirt, leaves or other debris. Mountain lions have been known to help themselves to bobcat caches.
Young bobcats may become prey for owls, coyotes, and other predators (including adult bobcats!), but few predators take adult bobcats. Recently, Burmese Pythons have been added to mountain lions as one of the few animals capable of taking an adult bobcat for a meal. These snakes have become plentiful enough in the Everglades that the number of bobcats has decreased — in addition to directly eating bobcats, pythons also eat the rabbits and other small animals upon which bobcats feed.
So, what to do if you see a bobcat? Nothing — just watch quietly and know that you’ve experienced a wonder. Go home and look at your own housecat with a renewed appreciation that such a creature chose to be domesticated.