Comments on: Maeher: Melanistic Bobcats in Florida

By: Jeff Hamilton

Jeff Hamilton — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:11:23 +0000

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!

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 22:58:58 +0000

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.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 08:13:28 +0000

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?

By: Darkstream

Darkstream — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 10:20:55 +0000

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.