Comments on: More Trailcam Weirdness

By: AlbertaSasquatch

AlbertaSasquatch — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:58:36 +0000

Jeez, I just looked at the photos again and now I see the “eyes” your talking about. Definitely not the feeder but still probably some sort of light anomaly.

By: AlbertaSasquatch

AlbertaSasquatch — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:56:26 +0000

I think the “eyes” on the left are just a reflection off of the feeder on the left. But I’m not a professional photographer so what do I know.

By: tigerbuterfly

tigerbuterfly — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:44:09 +0000

Oh and in photo #1..the eyes in the left distance is clearly batman and thats his bat-boomerang headed for the deer heads…lol…oh and the fence thing…there is a fence in pic#2 maybe it is a personal deer farm but I doubt that shabby fence will hold in a snake,coyote,and a bobcat, deer yes, maybe,..I wanna see some more pics like these…I think they are interesting…thanks!!

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:30:57 +0000

This discussion is interesting. If we can debate so extensively on the identity of a known animal in a photo, then it’s no wonder we have such a hard time with blobsquatches.

By: JRufus

JRufus — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:57:31 +0000

Well DWA, all I can say is that I’d take that bet:-) Since majority opinion seems to think it’s a bobcat you’d have to give me the odds though;-)

By: DARHOP

DARHOP — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:07:40 +0000

I guess the angle really wouldn’t have to change. Just the one animals position. If its dang head was up, we would know for sure.

By: DWA

DWA — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:16:35 +0000

JRufus:

At least when you say “not likely” you’re backing it up with statistics.

And from what I’ve read on the subject, I would tend to agree with you that it’s “very unlikely.” Coyotes tend not to be very good for bobcats; in fact my understanding is that bobcat numbers can be adversely affected by coyote presence.

But I still agree with many here that the animal on the right in that last shot looks like a bobcat. And I know well what they look like.

One thing I’m pretty sure of – although no info on this is provided – is that that “kill” either was planted as bait, and is being pilfered from the cat by the coyote, or that it’s the cat’s kill, and ditto. I don’t think we’d be seeing that photo if the cat had made the kill; so I’m presuming they’re fighting over bait. And I’m not betting on the bobcat.

But if I had to bet on whether that IS a bobcat, I’d wager yes.

And as to likelihood: you’ve seen the shot with the raccoon and the boar too, I presume. One cool thing about trail cams is that they hold the potential to lead us to new evaluations of likelihood.

By: JRufus

JRufus — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:31:11 +0000

I agree with Richard888–2 coyotes
The black spots on the “bobcat” are created by pixelization. Similiar black spots appear throughout the image. The tail of the coyote is tipped black or grey and is obscuring a portion of the back leg. The animal exibits the muzzle of a canine and the ears are virtually identical to the other coyote’s. I can see how it could be mistaken for a bobcat but I don’t believe it is. What is more likely, 2 coyote’s scavenging a carcass or a bobcat and a coyote fighting over a carcass?

Although a bobcat will scavenge (mostly in the winter when food sources are scarce) it prefers fresh kill. The likelyhood of a large healthy bobcat contesting a kill with a coyote is remote. A predator research study by Mississippi State University conducted over a 5 year period (93-97) in which 61 bobcat’s and 37 coyote’s were radiomarked and monitored showed that while territories overlapped, instances of direct contact never occured. The research findings are posted online for anyone interested.

It is very unlikely to be a coyote and bobcat contesting a food source.

By: DARHOP

DARHOP — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:31:40 +0000

To bad their wasn’t a couple other photos of these two. Different angled shots could explain alot more than we are seeing here.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:24:35 +0000

The third pic almost certainly shows a coyote and a bobcat. Look at the head of the animal in question, it has a classic bobcat shape to it that is quite different to the more elongated muzzle of the coyote. The coloration is also that of a bobcat, with the spots and white underbelly. The long “tail” that some seem to see that ends in a black tip is an illusion, I think. Looking at photos of bobcat’s, you can see that some have black coloration on the backs of their hind legs that exactly corresponds to what we see in the picture here and I think people are mistaking that for the black tip of a tail. I think the tail of the bobcat is tucked down out of sight. The arch of the back that we see also screams bobcat to me. If you look at images of bobcats online, you’ll see what I mean on all of these points. I’m fairly positive that is what we see here.

DARHOP- I don’t know if we see the two “sharing a meal”. More likely they are struggling over it, and you can even see from their stances that they are apparently playing kind of a tug-o-war with the carcass.