Do bobcats eat fawns? Based on the image how much do you think it weighs? 20lbs? +/-

I was worried about coyotes taking fawns but this just makes it worse. I think this bobcat would hunt them easier than the coyote since it can stalk them from trees. Based on his direction he was going to the trees.

Any predator that finds a fawn would surely eat it. Easy meals are hard to find.

I think I read somewhere years ago that Bobcats are only about 5% of fawn mortality rate. If I remember right.

Bobcats can and will kill very young fawns. To me they are not that much of a predator on young fawns as a coyote will be. Only issue I have with bobcats getting a fawn or two is around the only water trough I had. It was in tight thick cover in an old water lot and those bobcats had a lot of cover to work on fawns. I always see lots of bobcats in pics around the trough just after fawning season. Bobcats kill more rats, mice, birds, small prey than they do deer IMO. One older large male bobcat that has learned to kill fawns can kill and will kill more often than most though IME. Bobcats around my place usually scare the deer more than anything. So they can ruin a hunt more than killing deer.

Was watching a feeder this weekend when all of the deer started snorting and bailing out of the area. One group of does stared for what seemed minutes back into the brush. Eventually I saw a bobcat working his way past the feeder. After the bobcat got past the feeder, the deer would move towards him to keep him in sight, but continued snorting. The bobcat continued until he came to a big mesquite tree. The moment he was out of sight of the deer he did an about face and stepped out facing the does which were probably 30 yards away. Once they saw him and he was facing them, they about fell all over each other trying to make an exit stage left. The bobcat turned around and continued on his way. He looked to be playing with the does, but you could tell by the does actions that they were wary of where he was the entire time he was anywhere around. Sometimes I think animals of prey make their way through areas where they know animals are feeding with the mindset that they are not particularly hunting, but if an animal screws up and the opportunity presents itself the bobcat capitalizes on an easy meal. FInding any deer caught in the fence usually results in a meal for a bobcat and they will keep returning to the deer until the meat is too rancid for them to eat or until the deer is consumed. I have also seen them feeding on car killed deer on the side of the road. Bobcats in deer country eat a lot of deer meat, even though they may not be the actual killer of the deer. They are very opportunistic.

Bobcats can and will kill and eat a fawn but I agree, they eat more rodents, rabbits and birds. I have seen a couple of cases where bobcats killed grown does when we got a call to investigate a lion kill. A big bobcat will occasionally kill a grown doe, eat on her and cover her as a lion would do on rare occasions.
Adios,
Gary

I have a huge east Texas cougar roaming around a highline I hunt. I only find it's tracks probably once or twice a year. They are huge tracks and give me chills everytime I see them. I have never seen it though, only tracks. I still see deer there every year so I know it hasn't scared em all off.

Years back I was sitting in a ground box blind on the shoulder of of a seasonally wet creek backed into a huge brush pile. I could see about 270*s thru shooting lanes we had groomed in the thick brushy bottom and was watching a small herd of does working their way around the far side bank of the creek to my feeder setup and drop down out of sight to come up the trail facing me under 30-40 yards away in the shooting lane I was watching the feeder thru...they wandered thru unspooked without the buck I wanted that was always with them, and suddenly spooked looking over their shoulders down into the creek bed and scampered off...and Mr Big Tom bobcat eased out and jumped on a stump to sniff the super still damp air gently blowing my way coming off the water...and started yowling and swatting at the wispy foggy air looking around. Dumb ol me had been watching and not getting ready with the rifle for the buck I thought was trailing them with the gun out the window when all this happened PDQ....and I was "caught Looking and NOT Hunting" and could not move as the cat made me from the 1st instant on the stump as something out of place and not quite right all camo'd up with a face mask & eye glasses. Presently he jumped down and sauntered off thru the brush to cut the does off thru a shortcut ...that was something to see I'll never forget for sure.

Told the Landowner about it and not being able to take the shot, and she went ballistic at me for not killing the 'cat, cause she'd lost a couple yard hens earlier that morning off her back porch's henhouse.

Those does were certainly paying attention though and had hightailed it up the hillside on the far side of the creek bottom, cause I saw 'em sky lighted as I got out of the blind.
Ron

The Game Warden buddy of mine in Medina County had hounds and got a call to check out a lion kill near Tilden. When he go there, he was shown a carcass of a mature South Texas doe with some of one ham eaten and then covered. The bite marks on the neck were not large enough to be a lion so he told the rancher that it appeared to be a bobcat. He turned his dogs loose and sure enough, the dogs caught a bobcat that had a belly full of venison.
Since that day, I have seen two more whitetails that were killed by bobcats and at least partially covered. Bobcats hanging around a feeder will sometimes affect deer traffic around that feeder and if a lion hits the feeder, the deer will be gone. I have seen this occur many times in the Trans Pecos.
Adios,
gary

Thanks for the great feedback. Keep it coming. Learning something new with every post. If I find more pictures of Mr.Bobcat I will update the post as well.

I read somewhere that where coyotes exist in warm climates like ours, they account for 80% of fawn mortality. Everything else, including other predators and weather, account for the remaining 20%.

Yes they do. I shot one off the back of a yearling a few years back during the drought. I spun that sucker like a helicopter as it went flying into the brush. Never found it and the yearling trotted off.

I've been told that bobcats can be very bad for deer and exotic breeders at killing off their fawns. They climb the fence and can be very difficult to keep out. It's all second hand information, but I've heard it from enough different people that I feel happens quit a bit.

One of the funnest experiences that I've had with a bobcat was while sitting next to my pond early in the morning without a gun, just out enjoying being outdoors, and a bobcat came out of the woods across the pond from me. It had something in its mouth that it would drop on the ground, then when it moved, jump in the air and grab it. This happened several times, each time working it's way closer into the woods, until it was gone.

The first bobcat I shot was stalking two small fawns.



I have not seen any adverse impact on deer by bobcats at my feeders, but they are hell on the squirrels there.

A few seasons back I had a pair of bobcats at my feeder. It was in the afternoon. I think they were after the birds that were always under the feeder. I took a shot at one of them and I didn't seem them again.

I think they are much harder on turkeys than they are on deer.

JR

Well, they are more their size...