I have a pug mark pic I took over in the park, with my hiking stick beside it for a benchmark. It measured 4 1/2" across, bigger than any bobcat alive. We are so overrun with deer here, they could have been here for a long time and we'd never know. They hide their kills, so finding that deer skeleton was unusual. Bear are only a casual and opportunistic predator of deer...
I rounded a curve at roughly 60 mph and at first thought it was just another deer crossing the road before the tail caught my eye and then the general outline came into better focus. This was a big male, probably 150 lbs. The mule deer here are overpopulated and during the winter/spring I saw several big groups of antelope in this particular area. No doubt there's plenty to eat around here for him and his friends. Of course, there are supposed to be no big cats in central Alabama and I've tried to dismiss what I saw as maybe a big dog (Great Dane size)...but I could see the head and paws and they appeared very cat-like (that's all that I could see) along with the general size. I admit I could be wrong, but even the fur looked liked a cat.
I would never make that mistake. I had a Maine Coon which was actually larger than the average Alabama bobcat. At his heaviest, he weighed 28 lb. His paws, however, would do good to measure 2 1/2"...I rounded a curve at roughly 60 mph and at first thought it was just another deer crossing the road before the tail caught my eye and then the general outline came into better focus. This was a big male, probably 150 lbs. The mule deer here are overpopulated and during the winter/spring I saw several big groups of antelope in this particular area. No doubt there's plenty to eat around here for him and his friends. Of course, there are supposed to be no big cats in central Alabama and I've tried to dismiss what I saw as maybe a big dog (Great Dane size)...but I could see the head and paws and they appeared very cat-like (that's all that I could see) along with the general size. I admit I could be wrong, but even the fur looked liked a cat.
From a distance they can look a lot alike, I guess, so who knows? But others report seeing them as well:
http://www.al.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2014/08/it_was_not_an_overgrown_housec.html
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20040202/NEWS/402020301
I did not write that op-ed, but the circumstances were similar, except it was Hwy 5 near Woodstock.
When we were in western IL we saw and heard a bobcat - they were pretty common there. A bobcat is just so much smaller - more like a maine coon - that I just can't see mistaking one for a mountain lion.
A larger maine coon is bigger than the average bobcat and that's my point - not that you would mistake it but many people do. I think a lot of folks may not realize just how big a cougar/mountain lion/panther is. Someone had supposedly taken a picture of one in Tuscaloosa county from their car and it's maybe the size of a bobcat (quality was not good either).
We actually have a large cat in our neighborhood now. There have been several sightings and it appears to have lost its fear of humans. It scared a friend of our half to death. She was visiting a friend up here and got out of her car before seeing it. (Got back in in a hurry.) It was asleep on the driveway and didn't budge at first. Then, it got up, stretched and ambled off. It's cougar-sized and built, but it has a foreshortened tail. Here is the only pic taken, by the weekend weathergirl up here at channel 31. It was crossing the parking lot. She ran back inside but took a shot with her phone...
I'd say that, judging from the reports up here, closer to 100. Of course, you have to allow for natural exaggeration, when you find something in your backyard which looks like that. There's more about it, other than the tail, which looks cougar, rather than bobcat, particularly the long legs/body. Friends of ours who live several blocks away, on the west side of the mountain, swear they've seen a cougar, long tail and all, on their property. They back up to several acres of woods on the plateau, more going down the side of the mountain. Since we know for sure they're within 100 miles or so and with many thousands of acres of woods surrounding our mountain, together with hundreds of deer, there's no good reason not to expect them here...
Not a great perspective for determining size/weight in the picture but your estimate doesn't seem outlandish. There's no mistaking that tail. The tail was what made me sit up and really take notice (aside from the thought of the suicidal deer here being just up ahead). I went home that night and proceeded to have a gallbladder attack and had it removed 7 days later. Good times.
Sorry it worked out that way.
This cat really looks like a hybrid. That or a cougar which got its tail caught in a gate or something. Bobcats are built with short legs, close to the ground, where their prey lives. Those long legs practically make cougars (and this cat) deer specialists. The cat linked below doesn't really look that different from the one spotted around here. Once again, it's the tail which seems not to fit...
My guess would be a young male or a female, assuming it is a cougar (in the original pic). Certainly has the features, but on the smaller side for an adult male. Could the tail have just been at an odd angle or is everyone seeing a short tail?Sorry it worked out that way.
LINK
I considered that possibility, that the tail is wrapped away from the camera. Since a similar animal, but with a full length tail, has been reported around the neighborhood, that raises the possibility...
