Bobcat - Lynx rufus - male
A very brief clip. It was very, very dark and I could barely see the bobcat but I'm glad I stuck around and turned on the video. For a brief moment the bobcat began calling! The background sound is a rushing stream which was kind of loud but I'm glad the camera picked up the sound of the cat calling. The cat continued down the trail spraying, marking and disappeared into the ravine and began calling again. It was a beautiful way to begin the night.
In the literature I am reading it states that bobcat mating has been documented as early as November and December and as late as August and September. But the peak season appears to be from February through April. Solitary and territorial by nature, the biggest challenge for bobcat mating is for males and females to find each other over miles of terrain. Bobcats communicate using visual and olfactory signals and the most common of these is scent marking. Bobcats use urine, feces and anal glands to delineate home ranges, dens, travel paths and to advertise sexual availability. When a male bobcat comes across a spot where a female has urinated, he sniffs the area drawing in the scent over a special organ, the vomeronasal organ, also called Jacobson's organ which is a chemoreceptor organ in the roof of the mouth. The organ allows the male to detect the presence of sex hormones and whether a female is in heat. While doing this the cat exhibits a lip curling grimace known as a flehmen. If the scent marking has done its job...the sexes find each other.
A fantastic read-book on bobcats is by Kevin Hansen called "Bobcats, Master of Survival". I am reading and re-reading and I have many pages dog-earred or should I say cat-earred!
