The Mystery and Magic of Bobcats

[Music] mysterious elusive solitary the American Bobcat ancient presence of myth and legend able to appear and disappear at will Native Americans saw animals as messengers connecting us to the great mystery of life sharing lessons from Mother Earth or now to live in harmony with all creation when we see them legend says the animals are offering us their wisdom but we only see them when they allow us to and Bobcats can be very selective about this they are so rarely seen by humans and so well camouflaged that even when we look right at them we may not know what we're seeing Bobcats they're amazing animals obviously they they can appear out of nowhere they can move so quietly that you have no idea they're there in 1996 the town of Kiawah Island hired its first full-time wildlife biologist and began the Bobcat research project working in partnership with the newly formed Kiowa Conservancy this project proved to be the beginning of more than 20 years of significant and successful partnering between the town and the Conservancy well my interactions Bobcats go back a long way research on Bobcats really intensified after about the year 2000 a lot of that work is involved GPS collars on the markets we've been putting out collars on the Bobcats for over 15 years and put about half a dozen collars a year and these GPS collars keep us very precise readings of where the Bobcat is at a given time you put all that together and you get a lot of information about their behavior we have a population about 30 to 35 Bobcats about half of those are adults they're juvenile we have five dominant males on the island each with their own territory which they aggressively defend so we've got a really good idea what kind of habitat we need to keep on this island and so far we're doing a really good job of doing it so Kiowas a long island it's ten miles long along the beachfront and so you've got literally ten miles of this incredibly dense understory you know back behind the primary dunes and these cats can live have kittens and eat here and basically never be seen by people because no one's walking in these areas if they were going to the beach they walked on these boardwalks so it's a nice undisturbed habitat for them to spend time in so much of Kiowa lends itself perfectly to Bobcat needs and preferences here they prowl everywhere from our forests and wide marshes to the mud flats and dunes to the deep dark thickets always leaving only the slightest of clues that they exist at all you know with the technology these days they'll actually send us those locations via the cellphone Network so literally we're putting these collars on and tracking these animals as they move around the island and the data is downright impressive we now know while hunting or breeding Bobcats travel as much as seven miles every night our Bobcats have been tracked to more than 75 thousand locations on this one small island much of the Bobcats reputation as a shapeshifter is based on appearance its variegated coat creates a natural camouflage with colors and patterns and absorb light and disguise its actual size and shape they're just incredibly sly and cunning even the way their camouflage is designed the backs of their ears are white it looks like a face but you're looking at the back of their head they can make you think that you're looking at them in the face and if you blink they're gone because they were facing the other direction the whole time some native legends claim that these stripes and spots absorb so much sunlight that the Bobcat does not even cast a shadow Bobcats large golden eyes have extremely keen vision and their mobile tufted ears keep their acute hearing to dim the threats and prey they rely on eyesight and seeing movement they're more of a visual predator than a lot of the other predators out there incredibly good eyesight and incredibly good they they utilize to find find their prey you know they can hear the squeak of a mouse in the grass from a very long way away along with their finely tuned senses Bobcats have athletic talents that make them fearless survivors while they range in size from 15 to 30 pounds their wide padded paws allow them to stalk silently even in dry leaf litter their long muscular legs make them excellent climbers they climb to see the big picture to look for prey or sometimes just for the fun of it they are Swift runners but only in brief sudden bursts he'll never win the marathon but as their victims learn too late they are champion sprinters Bobcats hunt whatever's available season to season around here their diet consists mainly of rabbits and rodents but birds reptiles fish even insects are also on the menu and deer beautiful as they may be can be destructive to both natural and man-made landscapes it is our fob cats who keep deer populations in check when we first started out during the research on Bobcats we were honestly just trying to figure out how many there were what were they eating that sort of thing you know we didn't know a whole lot other than they were here on the island as we learned more we figured out that they were eating a lot of deer which later studies showed that those were mostly deer fawns so they were helping to control deer numbers and obviously you know your large predators fall into a group of species called keystone species they're kind of holding that ecosystem intact and if you take them out and you potentially have pretty serious problems Bobcats are curious avid explorers but the overriding goal of course is food once they find a good hunting ground they claim it their main hunting strategies are stealth and patience they sit waiting patiently for the right to attack male Bobcats are bigger than females and so are their hunting grounds one male territory usually includes the smaller territories of several females the Bobcats do not dig their dens instead they find convenient lodging most often choosing brush piles hollow tree stumps or thickets of Palmetto while Bobcats tend to avoid humans there are confidence in intuition allow them to assess safety versus risk and they're known to den near homes one day I was taking a walk early in the morning to the beach I lift up and in the curl of a tree was a baby Bobcat looking directly at me with the most beautiful face and the most beautiful eyes looking right directly into my eyes and I stopped in my tracks and couldn't believe I didn't have a camera a phone except the memory of that beautiful beautiful moment because of their sly stealth demeanor some of us are frightened of being attacked by a 15 or 20 pound Bobcat in our imagination we may confuse them with their much much larger cousin the mountain lion while all wild animals in a crisis situation are potentially dangerous the number of documented Bobcat attacks is practically non-existent I mean Bobcats they are they are really fierce but they they won't bother you unless you bother them adult Bobcats who lived to be 215 years old on Kiowa they have no natural enemies but automobiles are a constant and growing threat most often at night and drivers are not entirely to blame looking directly into headlights Bobcat eyes give off a telltale yellow green glow at night but in profile or on the moon the cats themselves are nearly impossible to see in both fact and legend Bobcats are known as solitary creatures males and females lead separate lives except when breeding courtships the brief and busy couple spend only a few days together and are anything but monogamous both males and females breed with multiple partners breeding season here in the coastal south east begins in late winter runs through April females give birth about 60 days later producing a single litter of one to six kittens each year the gettin's live on mother's milk for their first two months petty food collected by their mothers and brought to the dead Bobcat kittens are fast learners and they're independent spirits kick in early bear soon hunting on their own and claiming their own territories by the age of one females begin to breed with older males the young males aren't quite ready unlike adults newborn and juvenile Bobcats face many threats to their survival they fall to parasites disease Danny yes the Predators their chief predators are eagles hawks owls and coyotes overall we lose about 20 percent of our young Bobcats each year and while this doesn't make bobcats and endangered species on Kiowa their importance in maintaining the natural balance of our ecosystem is vital [Music] the message is clear that you know these animals are really important part of this system here on the island they were here long before we were but over time I think that Kiawah can probably expect a slightly lower Bobcat population but they'll always be here exerting their influence in the ecosystem but obviously we want to do what we can to try to to minimize those negative effects going for truth or fiction past and present the legends live on our Bobcats creatures of myth magic courage perseverance and survival if you see one you'll never forget seeing one is an honor a sign that you've been chosen to receive a message from the great unknown maybe even a secret revealed about the mystery of life [Music] you

Channel: Kiawah Conservancy

Views: 219,382

Rating: 4.8569512 out of 5

Keywords: bobcat, wildlife, kiawah island, conservation, wildlife research

Id: eIAEy5aOb9g

Length: 13min 42sec (822 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 02 2019