Latest news with #bobcat
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Police respond to 2nd bobcat encounter in southeast Calgary, woman left injured
A woman in the southeast Calgary community of Parkland was injured following an encounter with a bobcat on Sunday, according to police. Officers responded around 4:45 p.m. on Sunday after receiving "reports of a bobcat attack" from witnesses, said acting Calgary police staff sergeant Mike Sushelnitsky. "From the investigation, it looked like the pedestrian received some minor injuries and was treated at hospital after they took themselves there," he said. The incident follows a bobcat encounter that left a woman injured in Parkland on June 23. Sushelnitsky did not comment on whether the two incidents could be related. "It's unknown what provoked this attack," said Sushelnitsky, who pointed to Parkland's proximity to Fish Creek Provincial Park as a potential factor behind wildlife encounters. Alberta Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services responded to the scene alongside the Calgary Police Service, Sushelnitsky said. CBC News has reached out to Fish and Wildlife for comment on the latest bobcat encounter. The June 23 incident had involved a bobcat with kittens, leading Fish and Wildlife to call it an isolated, chance encounter" and conclude the mother had "appeared to act defensively," according to a statement sent to CBC News at the time.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Officers respond after woman finds wild predator sitting near her TV — here's what happened
A bobcat found its way into a Colorado woman's living room, according to CBS. A woman in Ken Caryl, a southwestern suburb of Denver, came home to find a bobcat sitting on a shelf behind her TV. Police were called to the scene and tried to use the lasers mounted on their tasers to tease it out. While unusual, similar encounters are not unheard of. A bobcat found its way into a school gym in Louisiana. Bobcats are the most common wild cat in America, but they are usually shy and elusive. As human habitation encroaches more on bobcat territory, encounters become more likely. Bobcats may even become conditioned enough by exposure to be comfortable approaching humans, as was the case in this recent incident. Food incentives are the biggest factor in shifting wild animal behaviors. Experts have repeatedly warned nature lovers to not feed animals, specifically because it can lead to more dangerous wildlife encounters. Animals can become aggressive when expecting food or confronted by people. Bobcats can be violent, and their increasing comfort with human proximity poses a threat. Bobcats were once hunted nearly to extinction and continue to be threatened by habitat destruction and the indiscriminate use of rodenticide. While tragic in its own right, threats to bobcats are bad news for humans, too. Bobcats help keep Lyme disease transmission down by hunting the mice that carry infected ticks, among other ecological services. This bobcat eventually left the home on its own accord using an open back door. TikTok commenters were amused by the police's initial approach. "The human instinct to go 'here kitty kitty' with a wild cat that could tear their throat out will never not amaze me," one said. "She was so done and the police officer was so excited," another noticed. "I rehab wildlife and feral cats, can confirm a bobcat will play with a laser if it is in fact bored enough so he's onto something," someone else wrote. Do you think people should be allowed to keep exotic animals as pets? Yes No It depends on the animal It depends on the person Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Nature: Bobcats are making a comeback in population in Ohio
Some of the most iconic mammals on Earth are large carnivores: lions, polar bears, tigers, snow leopards and many others. Unfortunately, nearly two-thirds of them are at risk of extinction due to the hand of man. Ohio once had a thriving suite of carnivores, including bears (more precisely an omnivore), mountain lions, wolves and bobcats. But as our human population flourished, these animals suffered. At the time of statehood, 1803, there were about 45,000 settlers of European descent. Today, the Buckeye State's human population is pushing 12 million. Bobcats, mountain lions and wolves vanished by 1855, victims of human persecution. People, in general, do not like larger predatory animals and do not want them around. Tangential to the disappearance of these charismatic mammals was the tremendous loss of the state's forests. At the time of settlement, 95% of Ohio was blanketed in rich tapestries of various woodland types. By the mid-1800s, most of that had been cleared, leading to the extirpation of another large mammal, the elk, a common prey item for mountain lions and wolves. Almost unimaginable, today, white-tailed deer and wild turkey had been vanquished from Ohio by the early 1900s. But people can right their wrongs, sometimes. Now, nearly one-third of Ohio is forested again, and that has allowed some forest-dependent animals to proliferate, perhaps most conspicuously the aforementioned deer and turkey. Far more exciting, to me, is the return of the charismatic bobcat, our only extant wild cat. In 1946, a bobcat was confirmed in Scioto County, the first record in nearly a century. Their numbers steadily increased, although bobcats remained rare for many more decades. Nature: The beauty of a red-shouldered hawk As forest cover has improved, bobcats have proliferated and they were removed from the Division of Wildlife's endangered and threatened list in 2014. While tenacious and scrappy, some readers have housecats that eclipse the average bobcat in size. While bobcats can range from 15 to 40 pounds, the average weight is around 22 pounds. A big Maine coon cat is larger. In keeping with its size, bobcat prey items are generally small, and rodents like white-footed mice and voles, along with rabbits, are their stock in trade. While bobcats are primarily nocturnal, they'll take day-active creatures like chipmunks and squirrels if chance permits. While I shouldn't even have to waste space on this, humans have absolutely nothing to fear from Lynx rufus. Wise creatures that they are, bobcats generally avoid us like the plague. No human has ever been killed by a bobcat, and attacks are nearly unknown. Since 1970, bobcats have been documented in all but 11 of Ohio's 88 counties. As would be expected, the largest numbers occur in the rough wooded hill country of southern and southeastern Ohio. According to Division of Wildlife data, Noble County is No. 1 with 340 reports. Numbers drop dramatically in the glaciated flatlands to the east, but there have been five reports from Franklin County. The return of the bobcat should only be considered a positive — unless you are a mouse — and they are furry stub-tailed proof that we can reclaim human-induced environmental damage. Nature: Clyde Gosnell and Omie Warner are extraordinary conservationists Bobcats' greatest foe today is vehicles. Vehicle strikes account for up to 20% of annual bobcat mortality. A car collision victim was recently brought to the Ohio Wildlife Center (OWC); she is the animal in my accompanying photo. While not badly injured, she suffered some neurological issues that have rendered her unreleasable. Shauna Weyrauch, a researcher and senior lecturer at OSU's Newark campus, has been studying Ohio's bobcats for the past decade. Through the use of trail cams and other tactics, she has unearthed many interesting facets of bobcat behavior and ecology. Weyrauch will be giving a program about bobcats on Aug. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ohio Wildlife Center, 9000 Dublin Road in Powell. Attendees will have the chance to see the bobcat whose image runs with this column. To register, visit Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at jim This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Bobcats grow numbers in Ohio
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
Bobcat injures Calgary woman in 'extremely unusual' encounter.
Bobcats typically don't weigh more than 35 pounds, yet a recent incident in Calgary has left some wondering whether these small predators could pose a threat to humans. An adult bobcat "made contact" with a woman, leaving her with minor injuries including scratches, in the southeast Calgary community of Parkland shortly after 10 a.m. on Monday, according to a statement from Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services. As the bobcat was accompanied by kittens, Fish and Wildlife determined that the mother had "appeared to act defensively." The victim of the incident was unavailable for an interview with CBC News, but neighbour Mike Melanson provided an eyewitness account of what he saw. "[The bobcat] went right after that woman like you wouldn't believe," he said. "[It] jumped, [it] knocked her right to the ground, and she was down." Melanson told CBC News he had startled the cat by his door when he saw it walking across his front lawn, causing it to bolt in the victim's direction. "There was a couple standing in the alley … and they were watching their dog. So the bobcat ran right toward that couple, attacked the woman … she was facing the other way. The bobcat hit her from behind." He said he had not seen the kittens nearby when the incident occurred. According to Melanson, the bobcat is a frequent sight in the neighbourhood, but this was the first time he had heard of it harming someone. "You don't see too many rabbits around our area anymore," he said. "There used to be lots of them." Melanson has three cats, and while he isn't aware of the bobcat killing anyone's pets either, the recent incident with his neighbour has left him concerned about the animal's presence. Fish and Wildlife did not confirm to CBC News whether they had located the bobcat, but stated that "as this appears to have been an isolated, chance encounter, there is no imminent risk to public safety, and no further action is planned at this time." But not everybody agrees with that assessment. "I wish they'd remove the bobcat from the area," Melanson said. "I mean, anybody that would attack a human is a dangerous thing to have around." "Bobcats are naturally shy of humans and extremely unlikely to attack people unless they are provoked, feel threatened or are defending their kittens," according to Fish and Wildlife. Isolated cases of unprovoked bobcat attacks on humans have been reported in North America, but the odds of that happening remain incredibly low. "This is an extremely unusual incident," said Scottie Potter, communications co-ordinator with the Alberta Institute for Wildlife who has a background in wildlife education and outreach, said bobcats typically do not pose a threat to humans. "The best guess that we have at the moment is this bobcat was feeling defensive about her kittens, but even that is pretty extreme behaviour," she said. Considering Melanson's statement indicating that the bobcat had been startled, Potter said the animal's "irregular" behaviour might not necessarily have been an attack. "It sounds like a one-in-a-million sort of encounter where an animal panics, is my first thought there," she said. "This bobcat, because they were so frightened, really wasn't maybe even intending to attack, and might have just been trying to get the person to move out of their way." A bobcat would pose a greater threat to small pets, but even then the odds of an attack happening are relatively low. "I wouldn't necessarily call [attacks on cats and dogs] common," Potter said. "Considering the number of bobcats in Calgary, the number of attacks on pets is quite low." With that in mind, it's important to take proper precautions to prevent small pets from being snatched. "Bobcats can move very quickly from yard to yard if they need to. They are incredible athletes, so you never know when a bobcat might stop by," Potter said. "If you know that there's a bobcat in your area, it's best to keep your small pets either on-leash or inside." In April, Ashley Delaney was crushed to find that her pet cat Bonnie had gone missing in the northeast Calgary community of Scenic Acres. A neighbour who witnessed what happened told her a bobcat had ambushed Bonnie in broad daylight. "I guess the bobcat chased her under the truck and picked her up," Delaney told CBC News. Delaney was mindful of bobcats in the neighbourhood and made sure to keep her cat safe, but Bonnie had slipped outside unnoticed during construction at the house when the incident happened. "When I got home, the bobcat was under the neighbour's deck with my cat." Delaney said her cat had not been eaten by the predator. "It didn't eat her or anything," she said. "Just killed her." As they are in Parkland, bobcats are regularly seen in Scenic Acres, with Delaney saying she had been seeing what were likely the same one or two animals around for at least five years. She said small pets had been known to disappear in the neighbourhood. Sara Jordan-McLachlan, a wildlife biologist who has studied bobcats extensively, said public perception of the animals can be mixed. "There's some who are understandably concerned about themselves, their own safety and their pet's safety," she said. "And then there are others who are on the side that we are sharing the space with them and it's our job to be aware of our surroundings and be careful about interfering with them as much as we can." She said that the best course of action to avoid negative encounters with bobcats is to avoid areas frequented by a mother and her kittens, but acknowledged that isn't always easy to do when the bobcat lives in a residential area. "Personally, I think it is still safe for us to share that space if we take those precautions of being aware, where that cat and her kittens are, and doing our best to avoid that area, especially if we have dogs," she said. Jordan-McLachlan said that as bobcat populations in the city increase, being mindful of their presence is important. "We're seeing them breeding in new neighbourhoods. They're feeling comfortable in these areas and safe, with enough prey in order to have these families in the city, so they're finding ideal habitat to expand their population," she said. Parkland resident Denise Hans, whose property is frequently visited by the bobcat and her kittens, said she had personally never felt threatened by the predator's presence, but said that it may be seen as a problematic animal to have around. "We do not want to hear that anybody's stressed out trying to walk their pet," she said. Hans believes the City of Calgary should invest more in wildlife management in communities like Parkland, which borders Fish Creek Provincial Park. "There's so many other neighbourhoods that [are experiencing wildlife encounters]," she said. "They need more resources. They need to educate the people." Hans saw the bobcat again Monday night, after Fish and Wildlife officers had spent hours around her property attempting to capture it, she said. "Unfortunately, she kind of outwitted us all," she said. "She was so sneaky."
CTV News
23-06-2025
- CTV News
‘Very, very scary': Calgary woman attacked by bobcat in southeast
A Calgary woman was sent to hospital Monday morning after a bobcat ran at her and attacked while she was walking her dog in front of her home in the southeast. A Calgary woman was sent to hospital Monday morning after a bobcat ran at her and attacked while she was walking her dog in front of her home in the southeast. It happened shortly after 10 a.m. in the community of Parkland. 'As soon as I opened the door, (the bobcat) ran toward the alley and it attacked the woman,' said neighbour Mike Melanson, who witnessed the incident after he first noticed the bobcat sitting on the grass in his front yard. 'She went down and she was screaming. I could hear her screaming. I saw the attack. 'It jumped right on her.' Calgary police and paramedics were called, and the woman was taken to hospital for minor cuts and scratches, EMS say. Fish and Wildlife officers spent hours in the area setting up cages and traps but left early in the afternoon without capturing the bobcats. Fish and Wildlife returned to Parkland Monday evening. Neighbours say the bobcat has been in the area for months and had a litter of four kittens living under a deck for the past five weeks. As of late Monday afternoon, the bobcat could still regularly be seen on the street, searching for food and going into different yards near where the attack occurred. A Calgary woman was sent to hospital Monday morning after a bobcat ran at her and attacked while she was walking her dog in front of her home in the southeast. A Calgary woman was sent to hospital Monday morning after a bobcat ran at her and attacked while she was walking her dog in front of her home in the southeast. 'Very, very unusual. In my years in the city of Calgary, the only time we've had bobcats contact humans has been when they feel cornered or threatened,' said Acting Staff Sgt. Lorne Rinkel with Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services in Calgary. An investigation is still underway, and Rinkel said wildlife officers could still return to the area after speaking to more witnesses and the victim. 'When a human is contacted by wildlife, especially what we call dangerous wildlife, we have to balance out our course of action. So do we want to euthanize or live trap or just leave things as they are?' Rinkel said. 'So in this case, the mother's left the scene with one kitten, and there's still two under the deck. And I'm very confident that the mother will return shortly to pick up the remaining.' A Calgary woman was sent to hospital Monday morning after a bobcat ran at her and attacked while she was walking her dog in front of her home in the southeast. A Calgary woman was sent to hospital Monday morning after a bobcat ran at her and attacked while she was walking her dog in front of her home in the southeast. Neighbours say they phoned the city's 311 service and were referred to Fish and Wildlife after raising concerns about the bobcat around pets and young children. 'We were told you have to cohabitate, unless the humans are involved, which happened today, I guess,' said Monty Hans, whose backyard deck the bobcats have been living under for months. 'The (mother bobcat) has been hunting by herself. And then the kittens stay under the deck and she comes back with something, drags it under the deck. We have made noise and kind of banged around and tried to get them to leave, but they're not going, and it just wasn't going anywhere. She wasn't afraid of us." But some of the people who live in the area are not satisfied with the response from wildlife officials, especially now that a human has been injured. Some neighbours bought horns and bells on Monday to try to deter the bobcats from coming back. 'But since we knew that it had a big litter, we are all taking precautions … putting extra lighting in the yard, cleaning up after our dogs right away, keeping them leashed, not letting pets by themselves in the backyard,' said Desiree Prosser, who lives across the alley from where the bobcats have been living. 'And it's tough. It's not easy because it's so unexpected and they're so unpredictable. 'It's very, very scary. Like, could it be me? I was going to walk my dog 15 minutes earlier, and I didn't, and that's when it all happened.'
