A Few Quick Facts About Our Local, Santa Monica Mountain, Bobcats
1. The largest bobcat we have captured (of 292 since 1996) was 11kg. That puts him at 24.2 pounds. We believe that this is the upper limit of the weight of our bobcats locally.
2. Bobcats only eat meat and locally prefer to eat rabbits, ground squirrels, gophers, and woodrats.
3. Bobcats are solitary and territorial.
4. Male homeranges are around 2 square miles, while the female homeranges are around 1 square mile.
5. Bobcats will cross secondary roads (ie., smaller than freeways), but are less likely to cross freeways regularly.
6. Bobcats are susceptible to the same diseases as a domestic, pet cat is, and disease can be transmitted between a domestic cat and a bobcat (or vice versa). This is just one reason to keep your pet cats indoors.
7. The biggest threat to our local bobcat populations is rat poison exposure, and a possible link between rat poisons and a disease, notoedric mange, that usually is not harmful to wild cats.
8. Bobcats may be exposed to rat poisons starting before they are born and for the duration of their lifetime. They are exposed because people use the poisons in a variety of urban settings such as in and around the home, at schools, watershed areas, parks, golf courses, landfills, commercial buildings, etc.
9. Bobcats locally have never been documented to eat people's pets or attack people.
10. Bobcats in our area tend to avoid human interactions.
11. Bobcats usually have 2-4 kittens in a litter sometime between February and June each year. The mom raises the kittens alone.
http://www.urbancarnivores.com/bobcats/The bobcat I've photographed sure looks heaver then 24lbs, I wonder if I can get the bobcat to step on a scale?
