The Mystery and Magic of Bobcats

Mysterious, elusive, solitary, the American lynx, ancient presence of myths and legends, capable of appearing and disappearing at will. Native Americans viewed animals as messengers connecting us to the great

mystery

of life, sharing lessons from Mother Earth or now to live in harmony with all creation when we see. Legend has it that animals offer us their wisdom, but we only see them when they allow us to, and wildcats can be very selective about this. They are rarely seen by humans and are so well camouflaged that even when we look directly at them we cannot see them. you know what we're looking at Bobcats are amazing animals obviously they can appear out of nowhere they can move so silently you have no idea they are there in 1996 the town of Kiawah Island hired its first full time wildlife biologist and started the project Bobcat research working in partnership with the newly formed Kiowa Conservancy.

This project proved to be the beginning of more than 20 years of significant and successful partnership between the city and The Conservancy. Well, my interactions with the Bobcats go back a long way in Bobcats research. intensified after about the year 2000, much of that work involving GPS collars in markets. We have been collaring Bobcats for over 15 years and put about a half dozen collars a year and these GPS collars keep us very accurate readings. of where the Bobcat is at any given time, you put all that together and you get a lot of information about its behavior. We have a population of about 30 to 35 Bobcats.

About half of them are adults and are juveniles. We have five dominant males on the island, each with their own territory that they defend aggressively, so we have a very good idea of ​​what kind of habitat we need to maintain on this island and so far we are doing a very good job of doing so, so Kiow was a long island. ten miles long along the beach so you have literally ten miles of this incredibly dense understory that you know behind the primary dunes and these cats can live and have kittens and eat here and basically never be seen by people because no one walks in these areas if they went to the beach they walked on these boardwalks so it's a nice quiet habitat for them to spend time in much of Kiowa which suits Bobcat's needs and preferences perfectly here they hang around everywhere , from our forests and wide swamps to the mud.

From plains and dunes to deep, dark bushes, always leaving only the slightest hint that they exist. You know, with technology these days, they actually send those locations to us over the cell phone network, so we're literally putting on these collars and tracking them. these animals as they move around the island and the data is downright impressive, we now know that while hunting or breeding Bobcats they travel up to seven miles each night, our Bobcats have been tracked in over 75 thousand locations on this small island, great part of the Bobcats. The reputation as a shapeshifter is based on appearance, its motley fur creates natural camouflage with colors and patterns, absorbing light and disguising its actual size and shape.

They are incredibly cunning and cunning, even the way their camouflage is designed, the back of their ears. white, it looks like a face, but if you look at the back of their head, they can make you think you are looking at their face and if you blink they will disappear because they were looking in the other direction the whole time. Some native legends claim that these stripes and spots absorb so much sunlight that the lynx does not even cast a shadow. The lynx's large golden eyes have extremely keen vision and their mobile, tufted ears maintain their keen hearing to attenuate threats and prey upon which sight and movement depend, they are more of a visual predator than many other predators out there.

They have incredibly good eyesight and are incredibly good. They use it to find their prey. You know, they can hear the squeak of a mouse in the grass from a very long distance. far away along with their finely tuned senses, lynxes have athletic talents that make them fearless survivors while their size ranges from 15 to 30 pounds their wide, padded legs allow them to stalk silently even among dry leaf litter their long, muscular legs make them Excellent climbers climb to see the big picture to search for prey or sometimes just for fun. They are fast runners, but only in short sudden bursts.

He will never win the marathon, but when his victims learn too late that they are sprint champions. Bobcats hunt whatever is available. Around here, from season to season, their diet consists mainly of rabbits and rodents, but birds, reptiles, fish, even insects are also on the menu and deer, as beautiful as they are, can be destructive to natural and artificial landscapes. It is our fob cats who raise the deer. populations under control when we started during the research on the lynxes, honestly, we were just trying to figure out how many there were, what they ate that kind of stuff, you know, we didn't know much else that they were here on the island, as we learned more, we found that they were eating a lot of deer, which later studies showed were mostly fawns, so they were helping to control deer numbers and obviously you know your large predators fall into a group of species called keystone species.

They kind of keep that ecosystem intact and if you take them out and potentially have some pretty serious problems, lynxes are avid and curious explorers, but the primary goal of course is food, once they find a good hunting ground, they claim that. , their main hunting strategies are. stealth and patience, they sit patiently waiting for the right to attack the males. Lynxes are larger than females and so are their hunting areas. A male territory usually includes the smaller territories of several females. Lynxes do not dig their dens, but rather more often choose convenient accommodation. The undergrowth accumulates hollow tree stumps or palmetto thickets, while lynxes tend to avoid humans.

They rely on intuition, allow them to evaluate safety versus risk, and have been known to hide near homes. One day I was walking early in the morning to the beach. I stood up and in the crook of a tree there was a baby Bobcat looking right at me with the most beautiful face and the most beautiful eyes looking right into my eyes and I stopped dead in my tracks and I couldn't believe I didn't have a camera a phone except the memory of that beautiful moment because of its sneaky and stealthy behavior, some of us are afraid of being attacked by a 15 or 20 pound Bobcat;

In our imagination we may confuse them with their much larger cousin, the puma. While all wild animals in a crisis situation are potentially dangerous, the number of documented Bobcat attacks is virtually non-existent. I mean, the Bobcats are really fierce, but they won't bother you unless you bother them. Adult Bobcats who lived to be 215 years old. They have no natural enemies in Kiowa, but cars are a constant and growing threat, most often at night, and drivers are not entirely to blame if they look directly into their headlights. Bobcat's eyes emit a telltale yellow-green glow at night, but in profile or on the moon.

The cats themselves are almost impossible to see in both fact and legend. Bobcats are known as solitary creatures. Males and females lead separate lives, except during reproductive courtship. The short, busy couple spends only a few days together and are anything but monogamous. Both males and females breed with The multi-pair breeding season here on the southeast coast begins in late winter and lasts until April. Females give birth approximately 60 days later and produce a single litter of between one and six kittens each year. They live on breast milk for the first two months. Insignificant food gathered by their mothers and the Bobcat kittens brought to death learn quickly and are independent spirits that become active early, the bears soon hunt alone and claim their own territories at one year of age the females begin to breed with older males, the males young people not quite smart, unlike adults, newborn and juvenile lynxes face many threats to their survival, they fall to parasite diseases Danny, yes, predators, their main predators are hawks, owls and coyotes.

Overall, we lose about 20 percent of our young

bobcats

each year and, although this does not make

bobcats

and species endangered in Kiowa, their importance in maintaining the natural balance of our ecosystem is vital. The message is clear: you know that these animals are a really important part of this system here on the island. They were here long before us, but over time. I think Kiawah can probably expect a slightly smaller Bobcat population, but they will always be here exerting their influence on the ecosystem, but obviously we want to do everything we can to try to minimize those negative effects, looking for truth or fiction in the past and the present. legends live in our Bobcats mythical creatures

magic

al courage perseverance and survival if you see one you will never forget seeing one it is an honor a sign that you have been chosen to receive a message from the unknown perhaps even a secret revealed about the

mystery

of life your