Felis rufus baileyi
Home: Central Canada to Central Mexico, usually found in much of the western half of the United States and Mexico. They can be found in rocky areas, thickets, swamps, forests and even deserts.
Food: Rabbits, birds, rodents, possums, snakes and deer
Size (length with tail & weight): 25 to 40 inches
10 to 35 pounds
Life Span in the Wild: 15 years
Life Span in Captivity: Longer than in the wild
Bobcat Trivia:
- The fur trade once threatened the bobcat's existence. At one time
they were added to the endangered species list. Their ability to adapt
to a wide variety of terrain, allowed them to make a strong comeback.
- Bobcats and Lynxes are easily confused. The tails and ears can help
distinguish the two. A tail with a black stripe on top and white on
the bottom belongs to the bobcat, while a lynx has a black tipped
tail. The ears of the Lynx has longer tufts. The bobcat is
smaller than the Lynx.
- Bobcats would make excellent spies, they are able to hide themselves well
and are very secretive.
- Bobcats are very quick, but tire quickly.
- Bobcats travel alone and are very protective of their territory.
- The bobcat is not a picky eater, if the usual food cannot be found he will quickly look for another.
Our Meet the Animals section includes research from the following websites:
The Austin Zoo's website: www.austinzoo.org.
Spanish translations courtesy of the Austin Zoo.
Rolling Hills Refuge Wildlife Conservation Center http://www.rhrwildlife.com/animbot.htm
The Birmingham Zoo http://www.birminghamzoo.com/
The WWW Virtual Library: Zoos http://zoonet.home.mindspring.com/www_virtual_lib/zoos.html
Photographs in Our Meet the Animals Section from PrintMaster Platinum v8.0 software.
Research on farm animals came primarily from http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/