Clark and/or Richard - Do bobcats have tufts on the tips of their ears?
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Here is a bobcat I posted some time ago.
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@Browndrake That looks a lot like the one I saw. But the tufts on his ears were more pronounced and I remember him as being tan, not ‘tabby’. It’s been years ago though, so my memory may be wrong.
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They do but they are not as pronounced as some cats. Here is more of a closeup of one.
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That is cute. Even my enemies have cute babies. I love deer but as an orchardist we see their damage.
Here were more trespassers last year
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I know you said its tail is too short, but it really looks like a cougar. I wonder if it had an accident and tail got cut.
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Yes its legs in that photo are really long. The. Bobcat in the above that is a closeup is from my county also but that photo is not mine. It shows the black tips on the ears and short black tipped tail that is normal here. We have some unusual cats in the area that are not typical in their appearance. Bobcats are very common here. One had a den in my backyard for around 7 years. I didnt go out there for a few months every year when it had small kittens. I wasnt scared i was concerned i would scare it. It left every year after they were big enough within 2 -3 months. I’m assuming she is now dead since she no longer returns. Those ultra long legs are not at all common except in juveniles. If that is a juvenile it may have a genetic disorder making it much larger than normal bobcats when grown. It was already nearly twice the normal height based on the photo. Comparing the photos you can see why people jump to the conclusion that picture during winter at my property is no bobcat. Like people bobcats come in all shapes and sizes and even colors. Many people sware they see black panthers on my road and within a mile of my house. I have seen a tan mountain lion that was very large but never a black cat that size here at my location. A mountain lion is at least 6 feet long. They are huge in comparison to the bobcats. I have see black cats slightly larger than bobcats with a long tail that have red eyes. They are more viscious that the bobcat or mountain lion. They may be a cross between housecat and bobcat. I wonder if those cats are what people call panthers. My mom thinks she saw some in a zoo in St. Louis many years ago. My mother didnt know what they were either. Everyone who is a farmer here knows what im talking about. A farmer asked me 2 months ago if i had saw one. I replied yes i caught one as a child it ripped boards off my chicken house and ate chickens. At the time i saw the cat tracks and captured it in a live trap that evening. I released the rare animal at another location. There are now many more of them where i released it. I knew it was rare and likely endangered. They are more vicious than any animal i have ever trapped. I would rather not see another one in my life. I have no desire to hurt them but they cant coexist well with people.
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Neat and a bit scary!
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The red eyes are apparently from a disease the black cats get but they all seem to have that. The bobcats dont have that illness. The black cats im referring to look like this one but one major difference and the only difference is their tails not bobbed. They smell like a dead animal. https://northwestwildlifeonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/BlackBobcat22-scaled.jpg
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Wow!! Things we don’t see in suburbia. Thanks for sharing.
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The black panthers that are seen in places like Texas, arkansas, Mississippi, new Mexico, Arizona, etc, are no mountain lion by the way. I know they reportedly even travel into Southern Missouri. Big cats dont know boundaries. They are a black jaguar which is found in Mexico Jaguarundis: Is the Mystery of Texas Black Panther Sightings Solved?
The Mark Twain National forest is 1.5 million acres of rare animals and wilderness in Missouri. Almost anything could be living in there and does. Mark Twain National Forest (Everything To Know Before A Visit) - The Tourist Checklist
I think those large cats eat pigs and there is no shortage on wild pigs. My grandma saw a very large black cat on a regular basis checking their livestock near Arkansas. She said she never considered it a danger to her. There are bears , wolves etc. there as well, unlike Kansas. We do not have ample trees for cover or wild pigs.
Yes they are in Mississippi
Yes in Arkansas too
Experts say no black panthers are in Missouri.
Many residents say there are. Kansas could have one occasionally in my part of the state but i think 99% of the time they are seeing a large black bobcat or similar animal.
I have seen other animals here that i do not know what they are. They are rare and i dont consider anything nearly as dangerous as us humans.
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Faced down a snapper on the path to the orchard, but after I retreated out of sight, the turtle turned toward the pond, and I could continue on my way. Didn’t see the beast again.
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thats a lynx! they dont have the banding like bobs do and have that solid black tipped tail. also longer and leggier than a bob. i didnt think they roamed that far south. see them more often than bobs now a days. wasnt so 30 + yrs ago. a large male can take full sized deer and baby moose.
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went camping in eastern central maine with the camper over last weekend. saw several snappers laying their eggs on the beach on the lake we were staying at. one was laying its eggs in a hole it dug right next to where my cousins wife was sitting. we let her be and watched as she buried the nest after. lots of elect. carts around so we put a good sized rock near the nest so no one ran it over. i then grabbed her from behind and put her back in the lake. she wasnt happy but i didnt want someone to hit her. man do they stink!
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There are no proven lynx , jaguars etc. here and even with photos they wont believe it. I saw an animal that was not a groundhog and looked kinda like a very large giant squirell. Sometimes i have no idea what something is. There are some very remote locations around here. One night camping some animal was messing with my tent all night when i.was a child. No one ever camps there and no one has camped there since. It is not accessible. I used a boat to get in there during higher water. It was risky and fun. I didnt sleep that night. Every time i started to fall asleep things would hit my tent. In those places it is possible to see anything. I saw a mountain lion at my other property decades before they admitted they were here. The black cats are anyones guess. Then the larger jaguar they call panthers may or may not have a breeding population here
https://flinthillsparanormal.com/cryptozoology/kansas-cryptids/cryptids-kansas-black-panthers/
I quote
" With limited evidence of their presence, the current population status of the Canada lynx in Kansas remains undisclosed. The Kansas Department of Wildlife has not reported recent sightings or established breeding populations of these elusive cats.
Given their rarity in the state and preference for cold, snowy habitats unlike the Kansas environment, monitoring efforts may be challenging. The Canada lynx’s status in Kansas is uncertain, warranting further research and conservation considerations."
They may know but they dont want us to know until years later.
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predators follow the game so they can show up anywhere. there’s all kinds of pics online of mtn. lion and wolves in Maine but the bios wont confirm it but us locals know they are here. only a matter of time until someone gets a positive i.d. if they are confirmed then they have to protect them which wil cut off access to the areas they are in from sportsmen. the state will lose millions. not many will want to camp in woods with large predators that could eat them. 
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Yes and i’m sitting in the heart of all the food and water. Lots of things come to my property. A man once came here on a tractor to pick up hay swearing to never come back because some type of large cat screamed at him. Some snakes scared another man off when he was on his bobcat moving dirt. They were aggressive. I spend time outdoors and never have these problems. A man claimed he encountered a large rattlesnake at the back of my property. My ex said she only felt safe when I was there. She said something watches me all the time here. I said lots of things watch you they dont know who you are. The deer even know me i see them around sometimes. Not every animal that shows up here is from here. My other property is much worse about that because a creek runs through it. Animals follow the creek. I would think Maine would be more that way.
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your basically creating a haven amongst the fractured land around you. any animal passing by sees it for what it is. same reason why im seeing deep woods animals here even though im surrounded by houses. my mature spruce and pines. thick shrubs and lots of cover emboldens them to come and some stay. without that, you wouldnt be seeing the diversity you are. good job! if more people would do that with just a small piece of their property, the animals wouldnt need to eek out a living sleeping in their prized rose bushes and eating their fruit trees to death.
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I plant blackberries, build brush piles , leave some land unmanaged and your absolutely right. I see covee of quail, pheasants,turkey , deer etc. Many birds species live here.
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