Meet Our Animals

Bobcat

Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
Range: North America
Status: Listed on the Endangered Species Red List

The bobcat is North America’s most abundant wild cat (excluding feral domestic cats). Despite the fact that they occur in nearly every ecosystem in the continental United States, they are rarely seen by humans. These cats are highly adaptable to habitat and prey, and are highly variable in size and concentration of spots. Bobcats are often confused with other wild cats due to this variability. If you see a cat in the wild (and it’s not a feral domestic) this is a logical first guess.

Despite their small size they can be very aggressive and dangerous to humans when unable to retreat. Rodenticides are a major cause of death to bobcats in some areas where people put out poison to kill mice and rats. These poisons are slow acting and some of the poisoned animals venture outside where their slowed reflexes make them especially vulnerable to predators, including neighborhood dogs and cats, hawks, foxes, coyotes, and bobcats. The poison then builds up in the predators’ systems and slowly kills them, too. These poisons cause a very painful death.

Reno Bobcat

In the summer of 2005, Reno bobcat was hit by a car while crossing the road in rural Wendell, North Carolina. The driver picked her up and put her in the back seat, then drove her to a veterinarian’s office nearby. There, they identified her as a bobcat and transferred her to Avian & Exotics Veterinary practice in Raleigh. Dr. Carol Johnson and vet tech Dhona Lovick tended her wounds and nursed her back to health. While she was recuperating, her behavior indicated that she was not a wild bobcat.

As a native species, bobcats are illegal to own as pets in North Carolina. It is possible Reno was previously injured, insufficiently rehabilitated and released, or that she was a self-liberating illegal pet.

When Avian & Exotics asked Fish and Wildlife about placement options for a bobcat that was not suitable for release, the Conservators’ Center was a recommended option. Dr. Johnson and Ms. Lovick visited the compound and helped settle Reno into her new home. We were thrilled to have our first licensed native cat on site.

Reno now lives at the Center with a male companion, Bobby Fargo, and enjoys spending her days stalking birds from inside her enclosure, and grumbling at passers-by.

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