Bobcats live in houses too
March 17, 2015 12:14 PM Subscribe
Fort Griffin State Historic Site, just north of Albany, Texas, recently had one of its historic buildings claimed as a den by a mother bobcat and her two kittens. The site's trail cameras have been documenting their lives since: the first glimpse into the lives of roly-poly inhabitants of a well-protected stone building came in January. With uninvited visits by raccoons, skunks, coyotes, and male bobcats...
All is well for mama cat and her kittens. The second instalment shows the siblings having plenty of fun, as well as sightings of neighbors.
By March, the kittens have grown bigger and more inquisitive. In the third video, one of the kittens has gone missing, presumably out exploring. Mama bobcat keeps vigil.
Later in the month, we see the family enjoying snow, having fun, more neighbor visits, and other types of food brought in by mama bobcat. This episode resembles a mini-documentary.
For more about big cats, Big Cat Rescue Wildlife Sanctuary has a wealth of information on protecting felines, including photos and videos of sanctuary residents. Related previously on MetaFilter: Other Noises Include Roaring, Chuffing, and... Miscellaneous.
All is well for mama cat and her kittens. The second instalment shows the siblings having plenty of fun, as well as sightings of neighbors.
By March, the kittens have grown bigger and more inquisitive. In the third video, one of the kittens has gone missing, presumably out exploring. Mama bobcat keeps vigil.
Later in the month, we see the family enjoying snow, having fun, more neighbor visits, and other types of food brought in by mama bobcat. This episode resembles a mini-documentary.
For more about big cats, Big Cat Rescue Wildlife Sanctuary has a wealth of information on protecting felines, including photos and videos of sanctuary residents. Related previously on MetaFilter: Other Noises Include Roaring, Chuffing, and... Miscellaneous.
Apparently the main way that bobcat kittens interact with objects is by pouncing on them.
posted by Johnny Assay at 12:45 PM on March 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 12:45 PM on March 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
There's a bit in the see the family video where one of the kittens is thinking about doing this to a skunk. The skunk is trying to explain via tail language that this is a bad idea.
posted by tavella at 12:47 PM on March 17, 2015
posted by tavella at 12:47 PM on March 17, 2015
Strange, the overlaid music and narrative, like, "one of the kittens is missing and she's looking for it and looking for it and oh there it is" (music: yay). Couldn't it just as easily be "All the prayer circles and charity drives in the world amount to nothing in the face of this cold, impartial face of winter, this bleak, pounding, harsh fist of a callous environment, carrying on with its machinations without regard to our lives, loves, hopes and dreams"?
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 12:48 PM on March 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 12:48 PM on March 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Jeez- thanks, Werner Herzog.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:49 PM on March 17, 2015 [11 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:49 PM on March 17, 2015 [11 favorites]
Kitten pounces on Werner Herzog!
posted by happyroach at 12:56 PM on March 17, 2015 [16 favorites]
posted by happyroach at 12:56 PM on March 17, 2015 [16 favorites]
The rabbit that shows up at 1:27 in the video clearly gets thrills from living on the edge.
posted by dortmunder at 1:00 PM on March 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by dortmunder at 1:00 PM on March 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Let's compromise: "All the prayer circles and charity drives in the world amount to nothing in the face of this cold, impartial face of winter, this bleak, pounding, harsh fist of a callous environment, carrying on with its machinations without regard to our lives, loves, hopes and dreams - Yay!"
posted by Navelgazer at 1:03 PM on March 17, 2015
posted by Navelgazer at 1:03 PM on March 17, 2015
Ok, but we change the music to Penderecki
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 1:17 PM on March 17, 2015
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 1:17 PM on March 17, 2015
bobkittens
posted by supermedusa at 1:26 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by supermedusa at 1:26 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
OMG bellydots
posted by caryatid at 3:02 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by caryatid at 3:02 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Huge rat!
posted by skybluepink at 3:11 PM on March 17, 2015
posted by skybluepink at 3:11 PM on March 17, 2015
Why is there no video of fat pregnant mama bobkitty squeezing through the bars on the door?
WHY!??!!
posted by BlueHorse at 6:35 PM on March 17, 2015
WHY!??!!
posted by BlueHorse at 6:35 PM on March 17, 2015
Those kittens are so entirely kitten like. How joyful and carefree they are!
So, at one point mr hippybear and I lived in a cabin that was halfway up a mountain tucked into a little hidden valley several miles outside of La Grande, OR. I was alone in the house one winter's day and was sitting chatting online with some friends when I looked out the window across the snow and saw this cat. And I thought to myself, "who on earth would let their cat out in this weather, and how could a housecat make it all the way up here across all that, anyway?" but just as I was thinking that, my eyes suddenly adjusted to the scale of the creature. That "housecat" was actually a bobcat.
She went around to the side of the house where we had a deck and some big windows, and I followed through the house and stood and watched this amazing creature feast on field mice in our yard that I never even knew were living there. She'd stalk the yard, and then having found a target, sit and wait and then suddenly pounce, and always directly away from me. Always. She knew I was watching.
And then she would turn around with a mouse in her mouth and sit and munch and crunch and eat it all the while staring at me.
She did this three or four or maybe five times before I grew tired of watching her watch me watch her eat. But it was fascinating.
Never saw her again after that, but it was a pretty magnificent afternoon.
I guess the moral of the story is, those look like cute kittens and a proud mama cat, but your eyes need to adjust to the sense of scale. I bet those kittens in the family video are each already approaching the size of a housecat.
posted by hippybear at 1:39 AM on March 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
So, at one point mr hippybear and I lived in a cabin that was halfway up a mountain tucked into a little hidden valley several miles outside of La Grande, OR. I was alone in the house one winter's day and was sitting chatting online with some friends when I looked out the window across the snow and saw this cat. And I thought to myself, "who on earth would let their cat out in this weather, and how could a housecat make it all the way up here across all that, anyway?" but just as I was thinking that, my eyes suddenly adjusted to the scale of the creature. That "housecat" was actually a bobcat.
She went around to the side of the house where we had a deck and some big windows, and I followed through the house and stood and watched this amazing creature feast on field mice in our yard that I never even knew were living there. She'd stalk the yard, and then having found a target, sit and wait and then suddenly pounce, and always directly away from me. Always. She knew I was watching.
And then she would turn around with a mouse in her mouth and sit and munch and crunch and eat it all the while staring at me.
She did this three or four or maybe five times before I grew tired of watching her watch me watch her eat. But it was fascinating.
Never saw her again after that, but it was a pretty magnificent afternoon.
I guess the moral of the story is, those look like cute kittens and a proud mama cat, but your eyes need to adjust to the sense of scale. I bet those kittens in the family video are each already approaching the size of a housecat.
posted by hippybear at 1:39 AM on March 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
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Sneaky longhorn cameo at 1:46!
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:31 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]