Many animals live in the Northeast, including wild felines like bobcats (Lynx rufus) (Image 1). Once heavily hunted for their prized and beautiful fur coats, the remarkable American bobcat (Lynx rufus) population has recently rebounded in the Northeast. This remarkable feline resides in young forest and shrub communities along wetlands and along the shrubby areas next to agricultural fields. Recently, bobcats have expanded their home range to mature forest communities of oak-beech-hemlock. In doing this transition to new habitats, the bobcat added young deer, squirrels, and chipmunks to their diet of beaver, muskrats, rabbits, and rodents but also young deer, squirrels, and chipmunks.  Like all felines, these hunters will be found “hiding” among shrubs, tree branches, on ledges, or even laying down as flat as possible on the ground. Their fur pattern and coloration, like all cats, acts like camouflage and helps the bobcats hide in the surrounding environment while stalking prey or taking a nap.

Identification

Several wild feline species, including bobcats, either make their home or once made their home in New York. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) (Image 2, left) have made a presence and have been observed hunting or hiding among the far northern forests of New York. Eastern mountain lion or cougar (Image 2, right) have been absent from much of their eastern range, including New York State for nearly two hundred years. In the western states Mountain Lions have a secure presence while in the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp of Florida their presence is much smaller.

Characteristics 

All cats have a distinct look – predatorial eyes located in front of their heads with upright ears. Like our domestic cats, New York felines have tails, some are just shorter than others.  Bobcats have either short stubs on their behinds or shortened tails. The bobcat also has a white behind that traces up to the underside of the tail and has a darkened tip.

The lynx always has a short, stubbed tail and a distinct black cap on the entire tail tip.

Ear tufts are present on both lynx and bobcat. Tufts of the bobcat are shorter than a lynx, or they may not be present at all. Lynx, on the other hand, will always have the distinct black tufts on top of the ears. Bobcats tend to have some black-brown-grey pattern or variation in colors compared to the more streamlined tannish-grey color and white chest of the lynx. Lynx also are notably wearing Elizabethan bowtie-like ruffs with black tips, which are lacking in the other two cats. Coloration of the hock, or the portion of the hind leg below what we commonly associate as the joint, are different in bobcats and lynx. Bobcats have black, dark brown, or dark grey. The hock of a lynx is not a dark color but rather an extended, continued coloration of their body. Lynx also have white on the insides of their legs.

Cats walk with an athletic stride and cautiously stalk their prey while hiding from plain sight.

Pawprints

If you were to place your hand on paint and press on a surface, a hand print would form showing your fingertips and palm. Just like our hand prints, all feline paw prints would also show their tips and a palm as shown in Image 4. The size and height of our fingers differ and so do the paw tips of cats (Image 4). In cat paw prints, we find four paw tips at different heights above the “M” shaped palm print. Cat lead finger is similar to our middle finger print, which would be at the highest height of the paw. The pinky would be the smallest print and at the lowest height, as would our pinkies. We would see the last other two cat paw tips varying in height and size as we would find the ring finger and the pointer finger vary our finger prints. Also, distinct with cats is the formation of a circle around the tips and palm that results from the fur on the paws. This shape is very distinct with the lynx as shown in Image 5 as a print inside this circle.

Generally, the bobcat pawprints are round and roughly a couple inches in the size. Lynx’s pawprints are twice this size. Lynx have a smaller diameter in their tip and “M” shaped palm prints and have greater spacing between the positioning of their tips and their palm. The reason for the smaller diameter and greater spacing between the tips and palm is due to the denser fur on the paws. The mountain lion has the largest pawprint, totaling 3 inches in diameter or larger. If you happen to see the felines in motion, note the paws of the lynx as being large, plush slippers in comparison to the bobcat.

Territory Marking

Felines will mark their territory through scents. Just like our domestic feline friends, bobcats, lynx, and mountain lions will rub their faces, scratch their paws, and even spray to mark their territory. Glands that produce a scent are found on the face, between the toes of the paws, and by the tail (Image 6). On the head, they are found at the base of the ears (pinna glands), on the eyebrows (temporal glands), on the cheeks (cheek glands), at the base of the whiskers (perioral glands), and at the base of the chin (submand ibular).

Scent marking is why the wild felines in the forest and your domestic cat rub their face all over trees, rocks, and other objects. Scratching vertically on trees, or furniture, and kicking their hind legs are common ways cats mark their scent on objects through the interdigital glands between their toes. Also, notably rubbing their bum on objects leaves scents from their anal glands (Image 7). Hair can also be left on trees, stumps, rocks, and other objects as the feline rubs. Looking for their presence through hair on objects, scratch marks on trees, or two strips of unearthed vegetation leading to a pile of material (Image 7 & 8). You can also sniff for a musky urine smell on the undersides of decaying or falling trees, limbs, branches, or ledges.

• 

• 

Finding evidence or seeing one of New York’s native cats can be quite a treat.  If you do see a native cat, let us know!

References and learn more:

Morse, Sue, Bobcats (October 4, 2018)

NYS Dept. of Conservation Bobcat

NYS Dept. of Conservation  Canada Lynx

NYS Dept. of Conservation Eastern Cougar

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Canada Lynx

Post by Irene Holak, State Parks