Maeher: Melanistic Bobcats in Florida
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 9th, 2007
Dr. Dave Maehr’s 1990 article details the discoveries of black bobcats in Florida.
Please see below his Florida location chart (numbers 1 and 2 are from 1939-1940 through the 1990 captures).
Click on image for full size version
Also here is a photograph from 1990 of a black Florida bobcat.
Click on image for full size version
The pdf of Maehr’s 1990 report he co-authored, can be downloaded by clicking on its title here: "Melanistic Bobcats in Florida".
Melanistic felid photographed by Georgia Tech’s biology professor (ret.) Edward Yeargers, Martin County, Florida, December 2005.
Wow. That top photo is great. I wasn’t so sure when I saw the bottom photograph yesterday, though the hindlegs were longer and more muscular than I’ve seen on any housecat, but the top photo shows a lot of detail for all of it’s blurriness. That ruff about the neck is pure bobcat. And the face is more feral than domestic. Are these animals protected?
Guess I’m off to visit pages about Florida.
sooooo, I take it although someone has proof, the “experts” aren’t accepting that they do exist? I’m just wondering seeing how I’ve never heard of them before. Kinda interesting that they would be black in an area where the sun can really be hot. Beautiful animal, though. I will say this, the face is difinitely bobcat, but the body is sleeker. The blury pics from the other article, I thought I saw stripes at the top of the short tail. Do we know if that is true? How does an animal that size go undetected in such a populated area?
Please see the January 14th updated version:
Top Twelve Black Bobcat Hot Spots
It now notes the specific best dozen locations to go find these melanistic felids.
I live in Osceola County, Florida on the edge of the Lake Wales Ridge, just north and slightly east of the “#5″ in the graphic above. My wife and I saw, on Friday October 5, 2007 at dusk, two large black bobcats at the edge of the woods at the intersection of Hubbard Court and Tapestry Lane in Celebration, Florida 34747. We live in a neighborhood that is built literally into their habitat. Frankly, I never knew they existed until we saw them on Friday. We have a friend who lives across the woods in Reunion and she saw them this weekend as well.
Interesting!