George, Whether you believe the encounter was a big cat or a pussy
cat, is your prerogative, but please don't make me out to be seeing
something SCARY and overestimating it's size. It truly was larger than
my dog, (Labrador retriever).
I grew up hunting the swamps and thick forests of Florida. I've hunted
Bobcat, and know what they look like and how large their tracks are.
I've never been "scared" of Bobcat, and have been very close to them
within 10 yards. I'm VERY aware of how "small" a "Florida" Bobcat is
and their tracks are small, less than the size of a 50 cent piece. And
as I said before, the cat that I saw was LARGER than a Labrador
retriever and only 30 yards away. That is close. It was a clear sunny
day. And the cat was jet black. Now, either it was a VERY big "black"
Bobcat, or it was a rare black cougar native to Florida. I'll go with
the latter simply because of the long low body of the animal, and the
fact it was so big. There wasn't a speck of brown or white on the cat
I saw.
I don't know how much time you've spent in the woods/wild, but I've
spent 20+ years or more hiking camping and hunting in the wild bush
and swamps of Florida hunting and tracking large and small game. As an
experienced hunter, I know my game animals.
Also, anyone familiar with Florida wildlife will know that typically,
big game animals in Florida are much smaller than their western and
northern counterparts, where larger mountain lions and BIG deer range.
Deer are much smaller in Florida, as are turkeys, squirrels, rabits,
bobcats, and cougars/mountain lions. The cougars (Florida Panther) in
Florida are smaller than the big cats in the midwest/west and north.
When I said 2.5-3 inches, I mean from outside edge to edge of the
footpad at the widest point. Typical bobcat tracks are 1.8 inches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcat and they can get bigger, up to 3".
However, I've not seen any bobcat tracks that large in Florida, and
I've tracked lots of bobcats. What I saw was no mottled/speckled brown
or even dark brown bobcat.
Anyway... It's possible I was hallucinating, or maybe it was an alien.
Hell, I don't know. It could have been a fusion crusted pussy cat. ;)
Regards,
Eric
Quoting [email protected]:
They were about 2.5-3 inches across, or a little small than
the center of the palm of my hand.>>
That's pretty small size print for the typical large cats such as a
mountain lion and its relatives. In the Cuyamaca area in San Diego
county, its
mountain lion central. I use to have an observatory on my father in laws
property in that area. I shared the field with several large sheep
and we had
constant mountain lion trouble. We lost two large rams two years apart and
both mountain lions were killed at the time by the State Game Hunter. One
weighed 90 lbs and the other 130 lbs. Both had heads larger than mine and
their paws were at least the size of a full grown man's hand with fingers
stretched out. When the lions made their kills, they dragged the
carcases about
a hundred yards away and semi buried them. I've had several nights were I
sorta played squat tag with them. That is they were there for a moment and
then gone...vice versa. :O) If you saw 2 to 3 inch tracks, you were probably
looking at something no bigger than a Bob cat or large house cat that's
gone ferral perhaps. As you said, it scared the crap out of you and things
tend to look bigger when that happens. :O)
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