bobcat fact

I've always heard about bobcats stalking and killing small deer. Maybe so but i have a pic of a bobcat and a deer 10 feet away from each other inside my pen with no problems. Buck continued to eat corn and the bobcat was after a small rabbit. I have been hunting a long time...first I have seen this happen.

I suppose a bob cat wouldn’t even try to eat a grown buck, but a smaller deer, say a yearling or fawn, absolutely.

TP&W did a study many years ago in south Texas and determined that the majority of fawn predation was done by bobcats.
That being said, on two separate occasions I have witnessed does chase bobcats out of the country, and the bobcats never attempted anything other than fleeing for their lives.

I would think coyotes are a much greater threat to deer than a bobcat. I give bobcats and fox a pass. Coyotes and pigs have a standing shoot on sight order...

Same here. I read a study that stated the vast majority (close to 90%) of all fawn mortality can be attributed to coyotes in areas with healthy populations of them. Coyotes will also run adult deer to the point of exhaustion before taking them down. I have killed several coyotes that were chasing deer. Never give them a pass. Shoot and kill every one you see.

The post was just to show the compatibility in a pen....I have seen a bobcat carrying small partial carcass' but never saw a cat kill a deer or carrying a deer carcass. This doesn't say they do or don't attack live deer. Most what I see is bobcats taking is small birds. There is a post on the web a large cat attacking a newborn fawn in a pen, I think it was, on youtube. But for me personally...I have never witnessed bobcats attack anything but smaller animals. To see a deer of any size in a pen that close was a shock to me. I have taken many deer census looking at 10s' of thousands of pictures and never have I saw bobcat attacking anything larger than himself. We did shot a bobcat eating on a wild hog carcass we killed earlier. Has anyone witnessed a bobcat attacking a healthy yearling deer? Not a fawn. I do think it is possible, bobcats would attack a sick or wounded "weak" small deer. I will not argue that bobcats will or will not attack anything but will definitely say they can be in the same pen at the same time 10 feet apart. That is a FACT!
I would post a pic but I have never done that yet. Maybe help from my son will get the job done.lol

I know that on occasion a larger bobcat can learn to kill larger deer or exotics. I have a friend who owned land in McCulloch county and had a bobcat that was killing adult Blackbucks and when they caught the huge male bobcat the killing stopped. A few years later he was loosing grown fawns in his deer pens and they killed another large male bobcat and it stopped the fawn loss. That male bobcat was killing fawns then carrying them over an 8' chainlink fence. I also believe there are way more bobcats today than years ago. I snared over 12 miles of fencelines on a South Texas ranch and would catch between 30-40 bobcats each spring. Deer absolutely do not like bobcats on places I have hunted or worked and have watched them clear a feeder of deer when they show up. So I have no doubt they will kill a fawn when they can.

An ole timer that ran and trapped bobcats told me they prefer to make their own kills, that you were far more likely to trap one using a live chicken as bait than with meat alone. This falls in line with the behavior of common house cats that will stalk birds even when well fed.

I did on one occasion many years ago see a bobcat that appeared to be trailing a doe from a distance but it wasn't actively chasing it the same way I have seen coyotes chase adult deer.

I have killed a couple of deer and had a bobcat eat part of the hindquarter within 30-45 minutes of killing the deer. A friend watched a bobcat eat on a fresh killed doe just off the sendero then it tried to cover it up. On ranch in La Salle county we were shooting does 2 weekends in a row. The first evening the does were gutted on a creek bank. The next morning they went back to gut more does in that same spot and had 2 bobcats on the gut piles. By the last morning hunt the following weekend they had 8 bobcats eating on the gut piles while they were gutting more does less than 20 yards from the bobcats. One guy did some video that last morning of all 8 bobcats on the gut piles.

I do this also.

Not that I want any but, but someone needs to cook up a batch of Bobcat and give a report on how it tastes.

I got pics of deer eating corn along side 4 coyotes no problem doesn’t mean they couldn’t have attacked and ate that deer if they had wanted to.

I've never seen a bobcat around a fawn, but I have seen does chase them away from feeders a couple of times. They get a pass from me unless I see one with good enough markings for a full body mount or maybe a rug. As others have said, coyotes and hogs are a different story.

I think their as opportunistic as anything else. These are NOT my game camera pics but cool pics nonetheless.

Clearly a fawn and not an adult deer.....not a bit surprised tho......

Biggest bobcat I’ve ever seen was going after some full grown doe. That thing looked like a medium size dog and the deer wanted no part of it. If they have the chance they will go after a deer.

My Dad killed a 39lb bobcat one afternoon that was stalking 2 doe on my place in Mississippi, aa neighbor killed and had a 45lb bobcat mounted less than a half mile from there and I sot a 25lb female bobcat that was after a fawn about twice her weight.

Cool camera pics

Perhaps its regional...but my thoughts and experiences are exactly the same. We have large numbers of both Coyotes and Bobcats (hogs as well). I am out in the woods a LOT all times of the year and keep game cams going year 'round.

From what I have seen Bobcats feed primarily on field mice, rabbits, squirrels and birds around here. No doubt a new born fawn is taken from time to time...but Coyotes are much more likely to be the predator doing that.

I rarely shoot a Bobcat and never Gray or Red Fox. Feral Cats are shoot on sight.