The Bobcat or Lynx rufus is a North American cat that first appeared during
the Irvingtonian stage around 1.8 million years ago. About twice the size of
a domestic cat, it ranges from southern Canada to central Mexico, including 
most of the United States. It is a highly adaptable predator that survives on
rabbits and hares, as well as insects, chicken, geese, and other birds.
 Occasionally it will hunt deer, but it prefers smaller, unthreatening animals
 such as the rabbit. It inhabits wooded areas as well as semidesert, urban
 edge, and swampland environments. Stealth, patience, and large paws
 make bobcats efficient hunters. They can pounce on their prey from a
 distance of 10 feet and are incredible climbers, capable of gripping with
 their front and back paws.

Although Bobcats have been hunted extensively by humans for both fur
 and sport, their population is resilient, though declining in some areas.
They are also the prey of coyotes and domestic animals. As common as
 the bobcat may be, most people will never see one because they are
solitary, secretive creatures, named for their short 4-7 inch long tail. Mother
 bobcats produce litters of one to six kittens and those kittens stay with their
 mother for 9 to 12 months. The Louisiana Bobcat Refuge, a patch of pine
forest west of Lafayette, is among the 69 wildlife rehabilitation facilities
 permitted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, yet is the
 only one solely dedicated to the shy and elusive bobcat.


Native American tribes like the Pawnee used bobcat furs to wrap their 
babies after birth to give them beautiful blessings since bobcats were linked
 to the stars and celestial powers.



“Each place its own mind, its own psyche. Oak, Madrone, Douglas fir, red-
tailed hawk, serpentine in the sandstone, a certain scale to the topography,
 drenching rains in the winters, fog off-shore in the summers, salmon
 surging up the streams- all these together make up a particular state of
mind, a place-specific intelligence shared by all humans that dwell therein,
 but also by the coyotes yapping in those valleys, by the bobcats and the
 ferns and the spiders, by all beings who live and make their way in that
zone. Each place its own psyche. Each sky its own blue.”

-David Abram