I was chatting with some friends the other day when somehow we got into a deep discussion about bobcats.
What was remarkable to us was that even though we spend considerable time outdoors, we have never had more than a fleeting glimpse or two of the big cats in the wild.
It’s not that the short-tailed felines are scarce: Bobcats are common statewide. But their extreme shyness, solitude and reclusiveness, and the fact that they hunt and roam mostly at night, make them seldom seen.
Perhaps because of its secretive nature, and because it’s the only native big cat still roaming Georgia’s wilds, the bobcat has an air of awe and mystery about it. It’s three times bigger than the average house cat, and many hunters say it’s the only real trophy animal left in the state; many yearn for a mounted specimen.
“The (bobcat’s) beautiful muscular body, fluid motion and stalking abilities fascinate me,” wrote Emory Josey, who for years was the outdoors writer for the Macon Telegraph.
My friends and I found ourselves exchanging stories about our few brief encounters with bobcats in the wild.
My story: As a boy growing up on Johns Island on South Carolina’s coast, I often roamed the maritime forest. One day, I walked around a huge live oak, and there, on a low limb nearly touching the ground, was a big bobcat taking a snooze.
Suddenly he awoke and stared at me for what seemed forever. I was scared stiff. Just as suddenly, he leaped up and vanished into the woods — the only wild bobcat I’ve ever seen.
Sad to say, most of the live bobcats I’ve seen since then were the captured ones, locked up in cages.
In addition to being listed by wildlife authorities as game animals and by some as chicken-eating “varmints” that can be legally hunted, bobcats are considered to be fur-bearers in Georgia and can be trapped legally Dec. 1 through Feb. 15.
March, though, is prime bobcat breeding time. About two months from now, the year’s first bobcat litters — an average of 2-3 kittens each — will be born in dens in hollow logs or rocky crevices.
IN THE SKY: Spring begins at 12:57 p.m. on Thursday, March 20 — the vernal equinox, when day and night are equal and the sun rises and sets due east and west.
The moon will be full on Sunday — the “Windy Moon,” as the Cherokee peoples called March’s full moon, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Mercury is low in the east just before dawn. Venus rises out of the east about three hours before sunrise. Mars is in the east a few hours after sunset and will appear near the moon on Tuesday night. Jupiter is high in the south at dusk. Saturn rises out of the east before midnight and will appear near the moon on Friday morning, March 21.
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