http://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/discuss/general-forum/wildlife-in-the-orchard/#p997
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Forget the orchard, Murky. That’s a play set in the foreground! You’re supposed to keep the users alive and in one piece until they’re 21. 
I do hope he dined on rabbit, though.
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I read your original post. Yet another reason it’s unethical to keep pet cats outdoors. Awesome photo!
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Cool picture. In an unrelated note, I’ve been thinking of spraying the ground around my fruit trees with round up but am hesitant to do so for fear of some spray getting on my trees. It looks like maybe that’s what you’ve done in the corner. If so, have you ever had an issue with damage to your trees? I try to mulch around my trees, but with 40+ trees it’s getting out of hand.
Wow !
Bye-bye rabbits and voles!
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Pretty rare to spot them in the daylight. Very cool shot.
First time see a bob cat, Nice picture.
What’s a little disconcerting is the playground equipment in the foreground! It’s tough to catch a bobcat in a photo, as they’re pretty shy. We haven’t seen our resident bobcat this year at all. I think due to a lot of loss of cover with the orchard being torn down. And, yet another reason why people should never let house cats outside (there’s a reason why they’re called “house” cats). Very interesting, Murky, thanks for sharing the photo!
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Getting a picture is amazing because they are mostly nocturnal here. We have a bunch of them and still have rabbits!
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Well, I’m glad I -eventually- had the presence of mind to pull out my cheap phone and take a picture. I also caught a short video. It was about 6:30PM. The cat didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry. It noticed me 40 yards away but didn’t seem too concerned.
Before the picture it was casually walking around inside a 10x60 ft area that is “fenced” in with flimsy deer netting that isn’t secured on the bottom and has some gaps (just to its right).
My almost 5 year-old daughter weighs more than this guy, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable with them sharing the same space until probably another 5 years from now. I doubt the cat would have come nearly so close if she were swinging, though. We’d just gotten home.
The neighbors saw a bear in their yard last year. We hear coyotes at night sometimes, but I’ve never seen one of them.
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Bobcats will not mess with people. I had one walk behind me less than 2’ while I was hunting one time. I could of reached out and grabbed it. They do seem to be curious about people though. Another time I had one walk out and sit down about 30’ away an just watch me. It finally got up after a few minutes and walked off. Though if you make any move at all they will vanish.
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18, but point taken
Bobcats were around us when we were kids they are harmless. Less aggressive than a lot of dogs and housecats. Like with anything they have personalities so there may be a mean one somewhere. Mountain Lions are a different story and have been known to attack people.
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Bears, now - bears are dangerous.
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Jeff, that’s been our experience with our resident bobcat as well. Our guy is big for bobcat standards. I was actually surprised at how large he is. His feet are really big in proportion to his body. We have seen him off and on sitting out in the field, sometimes as close as about 30’ from our fences (which are either chain link or metal bars.) He is curious about us, and about our dogs. My dogs are pretty big - about 75 lbs each and are Aussies, so the bobcat won’t mess with them. My neighbor’s dog looks big, but doesn’t weigh that much (Golden Doodle). And, somehow, that bobcat knows. He has jumped with elegant ease, right over my neighbor’s fence (like it was nothing, and it’s at least 5-6’) and proceeded to trot across their large back/side yard, and then hop over the fence gate on the other side like nothing. Scared the crap out of my neighbor, she was able to pull her dog in the house. My dogs went berserk, as they saw and smelled the bobcat trotting through the front part of our front yard and then trot a few feet down our driveway to travel up our street, and then back out into the open fields. We are in the middle of his large territory, and he is not worried at all about walking around our neighborhood. One of our other neighbors saw him drinking out of their pool, then lounging in the back part of their yard. Their lot backs the north part of his “trail”. He’s also cruised around their walkways in the back yard. We mostly see him at dusk. His foray across my neighbor’s yard and my yard was mid-morning. Rather unusual. Haven’t seen him this year at all. I wouldn’t call him harmless. He probably weighs about 50 to 60 lbs. easy. None of this “big housecat” crap. This was a BIG cat. I was shocked. He was gorgeous, big tufted ears, big feet. Not as big as a mountain lion, but not small at all, like I had always heard described. All the neighbors have said the same thing, “Biggest bobcat I’ve ever seen.” I hope he’s still around. Now, a bear would terrify me for sure!
Must be a suburbanized bobcat, too casual. Interesting reversal here across the river from murky–I’ve seen coyotes in town during the day but have never heard them at night.
An easy 50-60 pounds would be the world’s largest bobcat, i think?
Yep, that apparently would be pretty close to a record:
I’m sure it wasn’t, Ryan, but they’re often described as looking like “big housecats”. This guy was not a big house cat, not some 30 lb. bobcat. I was shocked at how big he was, so was my neighbor, who took photos of him, and has also seen him pretty close up.