Feline and Nature Friday - Big Cat and Little Cat

Thick fog rolled in again the other day, making me wonder what was lurking out behind the curtains.

I love that we have predators who live in our area and who might be out behind the thick fog. I smile every time I see evidence that they are flourishing despite the ever bigger sprawl of humans. More and more land has new homes on it - and usually it's not just a house but also multiple other buildings. Our shy predators won't go near the "compounds" even if the land used to be on their usual travel routes.

Yet, so far, they've adapted, and they still manage to live and hunt outside of human view. If growth keeps going, there will be a tipping point but we haven't reached it yet.

This male mountain lion came through our neck of the woods recently. He stayed just on the edge of civilization, in a thin slice of wild land. He left a scrape under a pine tree.

Soon thereafter, a bobcat came through the same marking area. Like I've seen in the past, this bobcat crept along with his belly low to the ground, sniffing the scent left by the bigger cat.

After he sniffed one scrape, he moved onto the bigger one. If you look at the photo above, you can see a mound of pine needles ahead of the bobcat. Those pine needles were kicked into a pile by multiple lions who marked this spot. The bobcat then went onto sniff the bigger scrape.

After sniffing, he hurried away, still using a crouched and low posture.

I love bobcats - they're so bold and feisty. It was such a treat to get video of this one.

I have a short video of the mountain lion and then the bobcat. Please check it out if you have time.