Canis lupus hominis

Posted in wildlife | Tagged black bobcat, bobcat, melanistic bobcat | 8 Comments

8 Responses

1. on August 21, 2011 at 12:50 pm Linda Charron

   My husband and I believe we spotted a Melanistic Bobcat on I-95 S just as we came onto the interstate at Bruswick, GA. The cat looked very much like the photos we have found and was much larger than an average house cat. I don’t know if this is the farthest north ever sighting of these cats, but they do seem to me a South Florida native. Has anyone else seen them up in the South Georgia region?

   
   
   • on October 7, 2011 at 2:45 pm Tammy

     I saw one last night and have been searching the web today to find anything I can about it. We just moved to rural White Hall, MD (at the PA line). Behind our home is heavily wooded, lots of farm land, lots of woods. A very long, big, black cat with a short, thick tail and ears sharper than house cats’ ears, came out of the woods and stopped at the wood line. Me, my husband, and 5 year old son were outside about 25-30 yards from it. The cat seemed to be startled by our presence and froze just staring at us. My husband walked towards it insisting it was just a wild cat looking for dinner (dumb!), as me and my son went back towards the house. The cat took off back into the woods. My gut tells me it was one of these melanistic bobcats, right here in Northeatern MD/Southeastern PA.

     
     
2. on January 14, 2012 at 4:14 pm Peter

   I live in Issaquah, Washington, just a few miles from the Cascade Mountain range. For the past few years me and my family have heard viscous sounding attacks going on at night. About 2 years back we heard it but it sounded like a house cat was getting attacked. It was attacking our house cat in our neighbors back yard, our neighbor jumped out of bed and scared it off. She said it looked bobcat sized but was very dark, I did not think anything of it though… My cat was seriously injured and just looked destroyed. We saved him but he died 2 weeks back :(. We now only have a black cat. But last night I was laying on the couch watching T.V. around 12:30 at night when I heard a very low, growling/moaning attack going on right in my backyard. I immediately knew it had my other cat, a black very sweet cat. I jumped up and sprinted to open the door, when I ran outside I was shocked. This housecat/bobcat look alike thing was on top of my cat about to do the death bite on his neck. I screamed as loud as I could at it and it looked at me and sprinted off. This thing ran so fast it was scary, it was all black and had yellowish eyes. It was a lot bigger than my cat, lean, muscular, and super fast. My cat is fine and didn’t have anything happen to him, but as my mom and dad asked me what it was I could not answer the question. All I knew was that it looked like a short haired, very lean Maine Coon/Bobcat mix. I really had no clue what it was because what is a black predator in Washington that looks like a cat? Nothing. So I searched up “black bobcat” and immediately saw the picture of the black large cat. I knew that it was the thing I saw attacking my cat. So I guess all I can saw is that this cat has a home in Washington state. Which seems a little weird considering the further sighting to be in GA. Please contact me if you need anymore info.

   
   
   • on January 14, 2012 at 4:20 pm retrieverman

     That sounds like a bobcat. Everyone talks about how domestic cats breed with bobcats, but in reality, bobcats will kill domestic cats if they find them running loose in their territories.

     
     
3. on January 14, 2012 at 11:06 pm Peter

   But the thing was it as black as night. I’ve seen bobcats before and that was definitely not it. It looked like a bobcat that had a stretched face. exactly like the picture above. Should I report this to wildlife services?

   
   
   • on January 14, 2012 at 11:08 pm retrieverman

     Yes. You should.

     They may not believe you that there is a black bobcat about, but they do exist.

     Not very common, but they do exist.

     
     
4. on February 16, 2012 at 3:58 am Carlos

   Yes there does seem to be some consistency in the color of a bobcat’s coat with the region it lives in (i.e: lighter coats in south, darker further north) and
   generally having the same spotted with streaks pattern. However, in the case of melanistic ones, this is a genetic trait where there is an unusually high amount of black pigmentation in the skin which is not influenced by environment. This would explain why there could be one in Georgia or Washington, anywhere really. The opposite of melanism is albinism,just to help give a different perspective.

   
   
5. on April 29, 2012 at 1:29 am jence sawyer

   i no for a fACT thier are black bob cats in washington. today was opening day of trout season so i went to go fishin at the mill pond in onolaska. when i got thier it was around 12 30 and i really had to take a piss. i put my rod on my roof and step over to some black berry bushes by a creek. as i started to take a leak i saw this big black cat walking on the road across the creek on this gated road. at first i thought it was a dog. but then it stop and look right at me and it was defiantly a cat it didnt have a tail and it was shinny black. i didnt think it was a bob cat because it was to large to b a bob cat. i thought for shure it was a black panther. it then kept walking really slowly then drop down over the hill by the creek culvert. i would guess it had to weigh 50 plus pounds for it was dang near the size of my rot wiler and i watched it for a good minute which it was no more than a 150yds away. tomorrow im going to get ahold of the fish and wildlife and see if i can set a live trap for it. i think it would look pretty cool on my wall

   
   

Comments are closed.