What you need to know about bobcats

As someone who has lived in rural areas up and down East Tennessee, I am familiar with the bobcat. So yes, they do live in Tennessee. In fact, there are bobcats almost everywhere.

Where do bobcats live? Are they common?

Bobcats can be found from Florida and all the way up to Canada. From the East Coast to the West Coast and down into Mexico, the bobcat is one of our more ubiquitous animals, as long as the conditions are right. And they’re right just about any place that has enough scraggly underbrush in which they can hide. According to the International Society for Endangered Cats, “only large, intensively cultivated areas without adequate surface cover appear to be unsuitable habitat.”

So, they are just about everywhere. The most likely places in Tennessee to see bobcats feature a lot of underbrush. So why won’t find them? Bobcats have keen senses of sight, hearing and smell, and they will know you’re coming long before you ever see them, and they will not typically want to get close to a human. They’re the ninjas of the animal world, really good at moving with stealth in the dark and not arousing attention. In other words, they are elusive creatures with keen eyesight. Also, they are crepuscular, which means they are most active at sunrise, sunset or at night.

What does a bobcat look like?

A bobcat is a little lion or cougar-looking thing with a short, stubby bobbed tail. Their meals consist mostly of small mammals, including rabbits, mice, rats, squirrels and shrews. They will also occasionally eat deer, turkey, snakes, feral cats, other small animals and grass. The upper legs and tail have black barring and the tail tip is black. They have sharply curved claws that can be retracted. Males are usually larger than females. The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency sums them up pretty well:

“A large mammal with long legs, stubby tail, broad face, short snout, and prominent pointed ears that sometimes have tufts. The short fur is tawny-colored with black spots and streaks … Facial fur has black lines and a ruff of fur extending from the ears down to the lower jaw. The backs of the ears are solid black with a central white spot. Underparts are white with black spots.”

TWRA

What to know about bobcats

First of all, a bobcat could theoretically claw and bite the heck out of you, but generally speaking, they don’t pose a major threat to humans. In reality, however, they wouldn’t attack a person without something being seriously wrong. If you see a bobcat in the wild and it doesn’t get away quickly, there’s a good chance it has rabies. But there is no situation in which you should engage a bobcat in the wild. It’s also worth noting that bobcats could pose a risk to your pets.

And just because bobcats generally don’t bother humans, it doesn’t mean they never do. For example, there’s a video that got a lot of play when a woman in some suburban neighborhood was walking from her home to her car when a rabid bobcat came screaming into the picture as if it came out of a cannon. Just in case you missed it, I’ve reshared that video above.

Also, you can hunt them. Bobcat season is from mid-November to late February, but always double-check with TWRA officials for the latest news and information. If you happen to run into one, remain calm. Be smart. Stay alert. Keep a safe distance. In truth, you are in very little danger from a bobcat unless something is wrong.

Have you encountered a bobcat? If so, let me know in the comments.

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