Comments on: Cryptid Long-Tailed Wildcats

By: lilibit

lilibit — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:58:29 +0000

This cat I saw was about three and a half feet from the head to end of tail with short hair on the face. I contacted fish and game from my state’s main office to have him follow up on what happened but have not heard back from him yet. It was much larger than a house cat, and it seemed to me to be very thin as well as the 3 inch necklace of ticks. It was wild for sure. I am in southern NH, and it was near death so I cannot attest to its character. I am not a pro, just a bystander.

By: Thunderwyvern

Thunderwyvern — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:56:31 +0000

I’ve seen a long-tailed bobcat or what I call “werecat” screech and buzz around my back porch twice. It could be a domestic cat, but it had spots and stripes on it just like the photos.

By: crgintx

crgintx — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:59:37 +0000

They don’t call the North American Lynx Rufus ‘wildcats’ for nothing. I’ve seen bobcats not just stand their ground but aggressively attack much larger dogs and I’ve also seen them bring down some fairly large whitetail does and immature bucks. From what I understand the Southern and Texas subspecies are much more aggressive than the those found in Northern climates. I’ve seen at least one film where a bobcat defended itself pretty well against a cougar. Most of the time they’ll run from humans and dogs but I know of at least 2 hunters who got more than they bargained when hunting them. My great uncle had the scars to prove it. He called them ‘gatos diablos’ which translates to devil cats. They were several attempts back in the ’70’s to crossbreed a domestic with a bobcat for a movie version of Allan W. Eckert’s, The Crossbreed but none of the kittens were tame as adults.

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:52:43 +0000

I love this subject. I think Kittenz perspective in the previous post on this subject a couple of days ago in which she speculates that cross breeding between wild bobcats and domestic shorthairs would be a reasonable expectation are on target and also, like her, would love to see the discover of a mystery feline somehow overlooked all this time due to its cryptic nature/behaviours.
It also brings to mind that by the time that a modern biological survey of the eastern woodlands had been undertaken, most of the land had been logged, hunted, trapped, fished, burned, drilled, mined, quarried, dammed, and overlain with roadbeds and railroad tracks. The likelihood of sparse populaton of some wildcat not recognized by the relatively unsophisticated (not to say inexperienced) people of the day, is an intrigueing one an dnot that hard to believe for me. We know for example that in the mid to late 1600’s (over one hundred years before Audobon made some of the first surveys) the landscape of the eastern woodland was vastly differnet from what we see today even in national parks and forests. I highly recommend reading Charles C. Mann’s “1491: new revelations of the americas before columbus” where he goes back to the original accounts to describe what the woodlands were like when they were dominated not by conifers like hemlock, whitepine, spruce and balsma fir, or deciduous trees like wild cherry, beach. maple, and oak as mostly seen today but with a wildly diverse mix of productive trees such as chestnut, walnut, hickory and paw paw which supported vast numbers of animals and birds, almost all of it under the distinctive form of loose cultivation as practiced by the native communities that lived throughout these forests in fairly great numbers prior to the introduction of European diseases and the subsequent de-population of the “prisitne wilderness”.

By: lilibit

lilibit — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:12:28 +0000

I sat with one that looks just like the first picture of the one that was skinned ….it had been hit by a car on RT 13 in Miliford NH 3 weeks ago, it was struggling to get across the streeet and I stopped the traffic and sat with it until the police came as it was expiring . the cop was going to shoot it because it was a sunday and no fish and game was on duty , but he finally found one willing to come out from Greenville NH , they where concerned if I had touched it , I did its neck that had a neclace of ticks around it , it felt like large fish scales .They can confirm that they are here , also I was told another was hit a week or so later near the same spot. It was short haired on the face as well as body and double the size of a house cat .

By: greywolf

greywolf — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:23:56 +0000

There are in Pennsylvania Regular Bob cats with short tails and some with long tails not sure how they get that way but they are here. We also have a larger cat running about in the state that they say does not live here (ie) the Mountain Lion or a darn good clone of one. I have not seen one but have talked to folks who have. When I was a young man of 16, many years ago we went on a Critter hunt and I remember seeing tracks in the snow left by a big cat. Not dog or bear but a cat, but I forgot they don’t live here.

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:33:13 +0000

Pity that in the first 1922 photograph there is not a ruler or some scaling aid to determine the cat’s size.

By: DWA

DWA — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:53:36 +0000

Shumway10973: dunno about pumas and bobcats breeding. (Pumas are known to eat bobcats.)

But then, we don’t have quite the historical visibility with declining felid as with declining canid populations.

It pays to pay attention. Because what you don’t think happens at all could be happening, right now.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:24:40 +0000

Pixie bob is a good bet. Although, you might be surprised what different breeds will actually mate as their numbers dwindle. After all, if we are wondering if they were puma cubs, what if they were puma/bobcat cubs? Would explain quite a bit.