Close Encounters of the Bobcat Kind

12/06/15

I had an awesome experience while visiting Sweetwater Wetlands. I was able to watch a bobcat stalk and capture a rat. The whole experience lasted just over 10 minutes and I decided to show photos that show the entire experience. I know some of these photos aren't the best, but they're part of the story.

I was walking the trail through the wetlands when I ran into a guy who told me that he saw a bobcat round the corner ahead a few minutes earlier. I conitinued ahead, not expecting to see it. But as I rounded the corner, there it was creeping along a line of cattails. It stopped, stayed still for a moent, and then lunged into the cattails. It came out witha rat and then started trotting towards me. I had nowhere to go, so I decided to stand still and see what it would do. However, as the bobcat came towards me, a dog on a nearby path saw it and barked. The bobcat dropped the rat and started running towards me. I expected it to run past me, but it staopped about 10 feet short of me and turned to look back towards the dog. It looked back for about 20 seconds and then glanced at me. It seemed more interested in the dog than me. It then started walking past me, stopping once to look back towards the dog. It then stopped at the edge of the bushes before going into them. I waited around for a few minurtes and it came back out and recaptured the rat. I followed it as it left the wetlands area. It scaled an eight foot chain link fence and disappear into some bushes.


Steve Winker