In response, the state's Division of Fish and Wildlife began to import newly-captured specimens from Maine.
Bobcats were successfully reintroduced to New Jersey.ĭecades of overhunting and deforestation meant that bobcats had been more or less eradicated from New Jersey by the early 1970s. To slay such a large herbivore, a bobcat will jump onto its back and bite through the throat. Although they generally hunt fawns, they have been known to kill adults, which can weigh 250 pounds or more. However, the cats are also extremely adept at killing adult white-tailed deer. For the most part, they eat rabbits, birds, rodents, and other fairly small creatures. Adult bobcats can bring down animals that weigh much more than they do.įully grown bobcats can weigh up to 33 pounds. In the wintertime, though, food gets scarcer, which prompts some of the cats to change their schedules: Throughout the colder months, bobcats in northern states will often adjust their sleep regimen so that they can spend more time tracking down prey in broad daylight. (According to one study, they do adjust their schedules based on the lunar cycle.)īobcats are at their most active during the twilight hours, when potential targets like eastern cottontail rabbits tend to forage. In the early morning, the felines return to their slumber and the whole cycle repeats itself. The animals usually wake up three hours before sunset and then go back to sleep around midnight they wake up again roughly an hour before dawn. Wild bobcats do the majority of their hunting in low-light conditions. It's still possible to see a bobcat during daylight, though. In keeping with the tradition of giving delightful portmanteaux names to hybrid animals, these critters are now known as blynx. The mix-matched predators tend to display a bobcat's general build and the pointier ears of a lynx. Over the past 15 years, a handful of confirmed hybrids have turned up in the northern U.S. Sometimes these encounters are violent, but they can also be amorous: Since bobcats and lynx belong to the same genus (which, confusingly, is named Lynx), the two species are very similar at the genetic level. Occasionally, the felines will cross paths near the border between Canada and the lower 48 states. Versatile bobcats live from Winnipeg to central Mexico. The Canada lynx is found throughout its namesake nation and some northern parts of the U.S. … But bobcats and Canada lynx can hybridize. Here's another noteworthy tidbit: Bobcats tend to be much more aggressive-in fact, some zoo keepers call them the “spitfires of the animal kingdom.” 3. Also, while lynx mainly eat hares, bobcats have a more varied diet and will readily hunt birds, small mammals, reptiles, and deer. Bobcats, in contrast, are built for warmer environments. Their enlarged paws act like snowshoes, enabling these hunters to pursue such game as snowshoe hares with relative ease. The lynx is a cold-weather cat that lives further north and at higher elevations. Also, lynx ears have longer tufts.īut where these felines truly deviate from each other is in their lifestyle preferences. If you were to compare their hindquarters, you'd notice that a bobcat has black bands on its tail, whereas a lynx's tail only displays a solid, black tip. Another key dissimilarity lies in the fur: Bobcats have short, reddish-brown coats with well-defined spots while lynx are shaggy, gray, and have faded spots. Still, some noticeable differences do exist between them.įirst, the Canada lynx is slightly bigger with longer limbs and larger feet. Both, after all, are similarly proportioned, mid-sized cats with stumpy tails and pointed ears. On the surface, these two species look very much alike. While bobcats are actually a type of lynx (another accepted name for them is the bay lynx-more on that in a minute), in North America, the term is more generally associated with the Canada lynx. Bobcats and Canada lynx are not the same thing. (In barbershop lingo, hair that's been cut short is sometimes called “bobbed.”) Other names these animals go by include bobtailed cats and wildcats-but neither of these names are generally accepted because there's a breed of domestic cat called a bobtail cat, and wildcat is now generally restricted to members of Felis silvestris, an unrelated species. Though many felines have long, sinuous tails, an adult bobcat's averages just 6 to 7 inches in length the word bobcat is a reference to this stubby appendage.
0 kommentar(er)
