Friday, 11 November 2011

Bobcat Description

Two fine bobcat photographs accompanying this bobcat description. I really like these photographs. The smaller one is a bit different. The photographer has the Flickr username of mikewiz. The original photo on Flickr is a lot darker than my adjusted version. The larger photo is very good for supporting a description of the bobcat.

The bobcat has some other names: bay lynx, lynx cat and pallid bobcat to name three. This medium sized to small wild cat is the size of a cocker spaniel. The largest male was recorded as weighing 26.8 kilograms and the largest female weighed 15.9 kilograms. Bobcats in the north are larger than those in the south of their range. The size of the bobcat's skull is similar in size to that of the domestic cat.

The legs are long and head relatively small. The tail as we know is short. In fact it is about 14 inches long, with white fur underneath and banding on the upper surface. The ears have classic lynx tipping - tufts of black fur growing out of the end of the ear flap. The back of the ears are black with a white eye spot, which can be seen in the photograph.

Male Bobcat - Photo copyright Tory - see in large format on Flickr

These photographs are published here with the photographers' express permission. Please ask the photographer if you wish to use either.

Bobcat - protected by copyright
Please ask photographer for permission
to use.

The bobcat has a ruff growing from the cheeks and neck. The quality of its fur is the reason why it is hunted and trapped. It is thick and soft. The cat's eyes are ringed with white fur ("spectacles" in cat fancy language). The chin is white as is the belly and the insides of the limbs. Dark spots and bars overlay these areas. The coat varies in color: buff to light grey and yellow/reddish brown.

Melanistic bobcats have been recorded. These cats are black with ghost markings. There have also been albino bobcats. The Canada lynx is similar in appearance to the bobcat. The bobcat has smaller and less hairy feet than the Canada lynx indicating that the Canada lynx is better adapted for traveling in snow.

Associated pages: Mexican bobcat, Florida bobcat.

Bobcat Picture

This is a camera trap bobcat picture from siwild on Flickr. This sort of wildcat picture is not pretty in the conventional sense. This is because the camera trap camera is less sophisticated in terms of its ability to create high image quality. However, being motion activated it captures the kind of image that you don't get with human operated cameras. They are wilder, more real. You get a real sense of what it is like in the wild for the wild cats.

Bobcat Picture - in the wild - camera trap image - by siwild - see it on Smithsonian Wild

I have improved the image quality slightly although there has been no adjustment to the content.

You can see the moon above the bobcat. This bobcat picture was taken in the state of Virginia, USA. The words on the lower RHS of the photograph is the name of the manufacturer of the camera.

The bobcat is the most common wildcat in the USA. It occupies areas in the east of the US from where the puma (cougar) has been removed or extirpated. The bobcat is part of the lynx genus. In Canada the Canada lynx is that country's version of the bobcat. The Eurasian lynx is the biggest of the lynx cats.

African Wild Cat Picture

This is a really nice African wildcat picture. The author is an amateur photographer who publishes his work on Flickr, a large photo hosting site owned by Yahoo. He has kindly allowed me to publish it on my site. His Flickr name is: antony_j_jones. Thank you.

There are two aspects of this photograph that I particularly like. Firstly it brings it home to me that the African wild cat is very like our random bred domestic cats. This of course is to be expected because it is the wild cat ancestor of the domestic cat (with the Eurasian wildcat). Is this cat a hybrid? Just a thought as the Africa wildcat does mate with domestic cats. This cat seems a little refined to be a purebred wildcat but I might be wrong.

Secondly, it shows the cat in his/her habitat, which is wide ranging but tends to be open scrub and grassland.

African wild cat - Photo copyright antony_j_jones

The photograph was taken in Namibia, the home of the cheetah.

Radio Presenter Jokes About Cat Cruelty

This morning, Steve Allen, a celebrity radio presenter on LBC 97.3, a London based chat and call type radio show, joked about cat cruelty. He was referring to what was meant to be a jokey way of washing a cat (6 am on 11th Nov. 2011).

He said you wash your cat by putting it in the toilet covered in shampoo, close the toilet seat, sit on the seat and flush. The process cleans the cat and the toilet. Afterward, you open the seat and the cat races outside terrified and dries off naturally.

Really funny Stevie. You are encouraging people to do that because a lot of people like your show. Personally I don't like your show; partly because you are always saying people are stupid.

I think you are being stupid yourself in indirectly promoting what can only be a form of cat cruelty. I can see one of you fans trying it out. A person who did this would be committing a crime under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. It is very similar to the case of the bank worker who casually dumped a cat into a wheelie bin in full sight of a security camera.

It is pretty clear to me that Steve Allen dislikes cats as he almost condoned a much publicized act of cat cruelty yesterday (youth swings cat by tail). Perhaps Steve is just trying to jazz up his boring show. If that is the case he is being stupid because he is on the edge of committing a crime himself.

In this video he is the person on the left.

Rare Wild Cats

A list of rare wild cats. The Iberian lynx and Iriomote cat are probably the rarest wild cats. How do you judge what is a rare wild cat when you don't know the population sizes of the wildcats? Rarity is assessed on how few there are in the world. However, with respect to all wild cats we don't know precisely how many there are.

We know that some wild cat species are more numerous than others. There are more bobcats that tigers for instance. Also, when the population becomes very low scientists do more research as the species nears extinction in the wild. This provides more data on numbers. It is shame we can't take better proactive steps to protect wildcats.

These are the rare wild cats on my assessment - numbers are cats in the wild. The links have been selected. There are many more. Please start here.
  • Bay cat - very secretive and lives in the virgin forests of Borneo that are being logged at a rapid rate. Don't have numbers.
  • Siberian tiger - 400 approx. left in the wild. Inbreeding problems. Population is stable.
  • Asiatic lion - lives in the GIR Forest in Northwest India. 359 left. Inbreeding problems?
  • Scottish wild cat - 400 approx. left in wild and we are not sure how many of these are purebred.
  • South China tiger - I say this cat is extinct but others will disagree. Whatever - it is extremely rare or extinct.
  • Sumatran tiger - 100-400 left.
  • Iriomote cat - subspecies of leopard cat - extremely rare - about 100 left. Lives on the Japanese island of Iriomote.
  • Andean cat - estimated 2,000 left. Persecuted by locals and loss of habitat and prey.
  • Iberian lynx - almost extinct. Population 84-123 (2009). Lives in Southern Portugal and Spain. Hunted to near extinction and loss of prey.
That is my list compiled out my of my head more or less. The white tiger is not a subspecies of tiger and is only in captivity (highly inbred).

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