Mystic Forest Friend
July 6, 2009 12:57 PM   Subscribe

How uncommon was the bobcat(?) sighting I had yesterday in Marin, California? Pictures here. I.e., are there offically people who track these things and would like to know about it? I was near Muir beach and luckily had a decent camera on me...

Would love any additional information!
posted by garethspor to Pets & Animals (9 answers total)
 
Yes, that is a bobcat. No, it's not uncommon. California has a gracious plenty of them.
posted by elsietheeel at 1:04 PM on July 6, 2009


It's only uncommon because they tend to be fairly people-shy. There are plenty of bobcats in Northern California.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:05 PM on July 6, 2009


Well, that's definitely a bobcat. What time of day was it? They're pretty common, but it's unusual to see one just hanging around a trail in the middle of the day...
posted by mr_roboto at 1:06 PM on July 6, 2009


Not uncommon, but you're lucky! Bobcats are usually pretty sneaky. I see them fairly frequently in the Headlands. They're not endangered or terribly rare, it's just not easy to catch sight of one.

(A co-worker of mine saw a mountain lion near the stables on the trail to Tennessee Cove, so really keep your eyes peeled. Coyotes are also common.)
posted by rtha at 1:07 PM on July 6, 2009


Response by poster: It would have been around 2PM-ish. And it was right near the green gulch farm/zen center...
posted by garethspor at 1:08 PM on July 6, 2009


2pm is pretty odd, they're crepuscular. And yeah, pretty shy as well.
posted by elsietheeel at 1:14 PM on July 6, 2009


Great pictures. These two studies from multiple sites in California suggest around 0.3 bobcats per km2.

Bobcat density, varied among habitat types as predicted. We estimated density as 0.27 bobcats . km(-2) (s = 0.16) overall in an area in the northern Sacramento River Valley and as 0.35 bobcats . km(-2) (s = 0.56) in a steep and rocky canyon within the area. At a 3rd site in the Coast Range, the estimate was 0.39 bobcats . km(-2) (s = 1.44).
Title: Censusing bobcats using remote cameras
Author(s): Larrucea ES, Serra G, Jaeger MN, et al.
Source: WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN NATURALIST Volume: 67 Issue: 4 Pages: 538-548 Published: DEC 2007


Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are valuable indicators of connectivity in the highly fragmented landscape of coastal Southern California, yet their population sizes and densities are largely unknown. Using noninvasive scat sampling in It capture-recapture framework, we estimated population sizes for 2 similar areas of natural habitat with differing levels of isolation by human development in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California. We used scat transects with geographic information system land-use layers and home-range sizes of bobcats to estimate effective sampling area and Population densities. Estimates of population size in the study area connected to I much larger habitat area (26-31 individuals) were similar to estimates for the area that was completely surrounded by development (25-28 individuals). Bobcat densities for the 2 Study areas also were similar (ranging from 0.25 to 0.42 bobcat/km(2)) and likely represent recent population declines because of notoedric mange likely interacting with toxicants.

Title: ESTIMATING BOBCAT POPULATION SIZES AND DENSITIES IN A FRAGMENTED URBAN LANDSCAPE USING NONINVASIVE CAPTURE-RECAPTURE SAMPLING
Author(s): Ruell EW, Riley SPD, Douglas MR, et al.
Source: JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY Volume: 90 Issue: 1 Pages: 129-135 Published: FEB 18 2009
posted by Rumple at 1:18 PM on July 6, 2009


Growing up in Marin there were a fair amout of bobcat & cougar sightings
posted by radioamy at 3:26 PM on July 6, 2009


That's one of the best places to see bobcats, ime.
posted by fshgrl at 7:06 PM on July 6, 2009


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