Photos and text copyright Romping and Rolling in the Rockies 2009-2017.

All photographs and text within this blog are copyrighted.

You may not copy or repost any photos or text without specific permission from the author of this blog. When in doubt, please ask.

Monday, January 15, 2018

A Bobcat Family Plays

Bobcats walk our trails daily. Every time we get fresh snow, I see their tracks. Then, in the days after the snow fell, the bobcats walk in my fatbike tracks. I love seeing their little paw imprints in my tire tracks.

I get photos of bobcats on my trail cams so frequently that I never post some of them - I file them away under the keyword "bobcat". However, the mother bobcats do catch my attention. Most summers, I capture photos of them carrying prey to the dens where their kittens are cached. This one is carrying a squirrel.

And this one is carrying a rabbit, reportedly their favorite prey. When they're carrying prey, they are cats on a mission, moving fast, which means that the photos are often blurry.

Some years, I get the treat of footage of the mother bobcats moving their kittens from one den to another, like in this frame from a video of a bobcat family.
The reason why the trail cam is in this position is that there is a bear marking tree in the picture. It is the small pine to the right of the frame. I've found that bear-marking trees frequently turn into generalized marking spots, perhaps provoked by the scent of the bear urine at the base of the tree.

In this photo, the two kittens and their mother were obsessed with a rock in the general vicinity of the base of the tree.

And, they played with each other while rolling around on the ground.

Although this happened in the summer of 2016, I never shared all of the footage of the family playing in front of my camera. I decided to do that today. Over the past months, I've made a habit of sharing wildlife photos and video early in the week, usually on Mondays. In the winter, the wildlife activity decreases dramatically so I may pull out oldies, like this one, that I didn't share previously.

I hope that you enjoy watching the bobcat family! (you can also watch it at Youtube).

28 comments:

  1. truly wonderful to see them play, and domestic kittens are so similar. Those markings, the ears, the looks, thanks so very much for sharing, we see through your trail cams life at a whole new level.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awww lovely! Having some family time. <3

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cutest video EVER! I wonder if that rock is a catnip rock!?! I strive to get pix of bobcats on my cams here in NY, but see very little, mostly at night, slightly blurry :( With 14 cams out you'd think there would be more sightings. Love seeing all your wildlife though!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hari OM
    Again I thank you for bringing us into this world we would never otherwise see! Such a joyful thing. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love bobcats, they are so dang cute. You're lucky to get such intimate photos of them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a sweet video. There must have been some interesting scents on that rock.

    ReplyDelete
  7. As always, thanks for the share. The bobcats are so beautifuly marked!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The kitten are so cute and I love the spots on their tummies!

    ReplyDelete
  9. So fun to watch -one of them really wants Mom's attention:)

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's wonderful to see them just being themselves!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Can't believe you can get to a point where you're blasé about animals...oh, just another bobcat!

    ReplyDelete
  12. OH MY CATS, I Madi(son) D House cat, am in awe of the Bobcats...I love their ear markings and OMCs in another life I think I might wanna be a bobcat
    Your video and pictures leave us smiling
    Hugs madi and mom

    ReplyDelete
  13. They are absolutely amazing and in the photo at the beginning it looks like a giant sized house cat maybe one on steroids. They may be common to you but I have only ever seen one in the wild and that was when I was a child

    ReplyDelete
  14. I imagine you have a library of great videos. Thank you for sharing this one with us

    ReplyDelete
  15. These photos and the video are so cool!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh my goodness! I loved watching that!!!
    KZK

    ReplyDelete
  17. How wonderful to catch glimpses of the Bobcats! Great footage.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow, you sure have captured some wonderful footage!

    Keep Calm & Bark On!

    Murphy & Stanley

    ReplyDelete
  19. I love their ears...I didn't realize they had those markings. And those spotted bellies....adorable!
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

    ReplyDelete
  20. Love the ears and marking on the Bobcats. Nice to know they love wabbits just like my sisters and me!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love the feel of relaxed and safe. thanks for sharing these. I love the bobcats too

    ReplyDelete
  22. OMD, they are sooooo cute! And FABulous tree rat hunters!!! My heroes!! ☺
    Thanks for posting this, Ma needed an Awwwwwwwww today!
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

    ReplyDelete
  23. That is so neat. I've only seen a bobcat on my hikes a few times.

    ReplyDelete

If you are a Blogger registered user, you can skip the step asking you to verify that you are not a spammer. For posts older than 5 days, I have comment moderation turned on.

Thanks for your comments!!!!!