Answers to Go with Susan Smith

Q. I was about to cross a stream when I came upon a bobcat eating some fresh prey. We were both surprised. It snarled and raised its ruff. I backed off slowly and the bobcat went back to its meal. It sure looked big. How large can a Texas bobcat get?

A. Here’s what the folks at Texas Parks and Wildlife have to say: “Adult bobcats are usually 25 to 30 inches long, stand 15 to 20 inches tall at the shoulder, and weigh between 15 and 25 pounds.

“They have a short tail about six inches long. The male and female look alike, but the male will be larger. Occasionally a large male in the 30 to 35 pound class will be found. Color varies among the cats, but as a rule the bobcat is a cream-buff shade with tones of gray and brown, mottled with spots. Some cats may have more gray and others have more brown. The lighter belly area is spotted.

“Bobcats can live in a wide variety of habitats, including swamps, deserts and mountain ranges, and they feed on different sizes of prey – small (mice), medium (rabbits and poultry) and large (domestic animals and deer).”

I sure would back away from a wild animal that could bring down a deer. I found some reports online from hunters talking about really big bobcats weighing up to 40 pounds. That could be compared to a healthy domestic cat weighing in at 10 pounds. The Maine Coon cat is one wellknown large domestic cat; MaineCoon.org states that males usually weigh between 15 and 25 pounds.

I inspected a bobcat range map produced by the National Science Research Laboratory at Texas Tech. At first glance, it looked as if every Texas county had confirmed sightings of bobcats. After a closer look, I saw a few Texas counties near the Panhandle that did not.

I also saw some cute photos of bobcat kittens online. According to the National Bobcat Research and Rescue Organization, bobcat kittens look a lot like domestic tabby kittens, but baby bobcats have black ears with a white patch in the center and bobbed tails with a black tip.