Bobcats?

16 years ago

When my DH was walking DS2 out to his car tonight, they came back inside and said that there was a strange animal sound in the yard. It was chilling! We went out on the screened porch and could hear this weird sound as it moved through the woods. It made the sound constantly for about 10 minutes. I've lived in rural areas of NC all my life and I've never heard this sound before. We went online and listened to several animal sounds and it sounded the most like a bobcat.

Anyone have any experience with these? Our only pet that goes outside is our greyhound, but she is always with us and never outside alone. Yet, we take her out right before bedtime every night in the dark. Should we be concerned if it is a bobcat?

thanks!

Cameron

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Comments (5)

PattiOH
16 years ago
Hi Cameron,
I can't claim any personal experience with bobcats, but I know you do have them in N.C. in the mountains, as do we here in Mass. Someone sighted a bobcat in my mother's neighborhood a few weeks ago. It turned out to be an enormously fat tabby (newspaper managed to print a hilarious photo).
It is becoming more common for "wild" animals to appear near civilization. Bear and moose are commonly seen here in our valley now, which was not the case even 10 years ago.

I would confine my walking the dog to a well-lighted area and it wouldn't hurt to bring a walking stick. We also have coyotes here now (unheard of when I was a kid) which will dine on cats and small dogs. I think you're wise to escort your dog at night.

Patti
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slubberdegulion
16 years ago
We have bobcats around here in the mountains too. I can't recall ever hearing about one attacking a dog, but you never know. I've always heard they are fairly shy unless cornered. I've never seen one up close, they usually take off.

Like Patti, I'd be more concerned with coyotes. They're moving into the city here too. An animal control officer told our watch group we'd know when they got here because our feral cats would suddenly stop being a problem, along with the groundhogs and anything else they can get (dogs, my chickens, etc).

Do y'all have rumors of mountain lions in NC? Everyone I know in rural areas swears we have them around here, but there has never been much (if any) proof of any near me.
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aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
16 years ago
Cameron, if you even think there might be a bobcat lurking around be very wary of what's around you and do carry something to ward it off if it comes to that. We have a lot of cougars on the island. DS2 had a run in with one, it had hold of one of their Jack Russells, the dog got loose but the cat was coming at it again. My son had just come back from hunting and had just got out of the truck, luckily he had his bow handy, needless to say the dog is fine the cougar isn't.

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todancewithwolves
16 years ago
My brother has them where he lives. They are not known to attack medium to large dogs but they will kill cat's. I'm sure if a dog chased a bobcat the bobcat could inflict serious damage.

I hope it's not a Mt. Lion. We have them here and they have attacked and killed several joggers.

Edna
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DYH
Original Author
16 years ago
We shouldn't have cougars here at all. An occasional black bear will show up once in awhile, but that's very, very rare for our area. When my son was little, he came inside to tell me that the neighbor's bull was out again on our property. I went outside and found bear scat! About 10 minutes later, my neighbor through the woods called to say we had a black bear and to watch out. That was on a different farm, not here.

There have been some rumors that the Eastern Carolina Panther (thought to be extinct) may be around, but no confirmed sightings. My ex (about 30 minutes away) says that they are hearing coyotes over there now with confirmed sightings. The sound we heard was not a coyote. It was feline.

Bobcats are in the area, so it was probably just wandering through and not living on our property. I couldn't find any tracks in the open areas around our house. It sounded like it was traveling along our creek in the woods. We may go down there during the day and see what tracks we find.

I'm not really too concerned unless it is rabid. Rabies is being reported in the fox and raccoon populations in our area.

We have an abundant deer population with quite a few fawns born this year. DH and I noticed that they were not in our meadow around sunset (their daily routine). They had moved down about 1/2 mile to a neighbor's meadow instead. Hmmm...maybe they know something!

We aren't outside much at night and Charm (our greyhound) is never outside without us. She won't give chase to anything except her toys. She doesn't bark at anything either. When she is out with us, we are always out in the meadow, not in the woods.

There are no streetlights here and our outside lights are restricted by covenants to 75 watts to prevent light pollution (this is a great place for star gazers). We've started turning on all the inside and outside lights when we go out at 11:00pm for Charm's last bathroom break.

Anyway, we'll play it safe and see what tracks we find. I grew up in the country, but we just never had a bobcat present a problem.
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