This morning, as she often is, Mary Ellen McMahon was walking her dog Jax along Sawmill Brook, which runs along the northern edge of Millennium Park, when she spotted a cat in the marshes. A really big cat. As big as 45-lb. Jax, she reports.
A young bobcat, perhaps? In any case, a good reason to start leashing those chihuahuas and yorkies.
She adds:
It didn't move while I took photos. I walked away and it started to move. When I peeked back, it saw me and froze again.
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Comments
Adorable!
By APB
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 11:26am
n/t
Fascinating.
By Smart Arse
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 11:28am
Especially considering all the coyote/wolf stories, interesting to see a wild cat report.
However, in that first photo, the cat appears to have a long tail. Don't bobcats have short tails (by definition)?
Short compared to domestic cats...
By FlyingToaster
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 11:59am
... but not tiny. 6-8 inches is not uncommon.
The coloring looks weird to me, for a bobcat; usually they're more mottled for camoflage.
Maine Coon?
By dmcboston
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 1:08pm
Or a mix? It does look like a bobcat, the color's not bad, but maybe a feral Maine Coon. They get huge and have big tails.
[ed] On second thought, probably not a Maine Coon. It would have a lot of fur sticking out of all kinds of odd places like ears and footpads. Can't really see much of that. Tail is not right. They have huge tails.
How is it appearing to have a long tail?
By Sock_Puppet
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 12:51pm
It's rear is shifted to the right of the frame. The base of its tail is on the other side of a blade of grass from its haunch. The white fluffy end of its tail is a few inches away, curled towards the front. That's a very short tail, shorter than the tail on a seven pound housecat.
Given that the bobcat is the only widespread wild cat in Massachusetts (there have been a handful of mountain lion sightings, but they have very long tails, longer than their legs), this has to be a bobcat.
Hybrid
By Kaz
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 1:29pm
Can bobcats and house cats mate?
Maybe
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 3:20pm
There are lots of stories, little genetic evidence.
Example: When I was growing up, one of my cousin's barn cats had a litter of large kittens that were particularly aggressively feral and sported shortened tails. These were said to have been sired by a bobcat. Was that true, though? Who knows, but legends like these persist.
Sounds like
By GFN
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 5:02pm
a description of Lizzie Warren, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Except
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 7:14pm
Like me, she has the genetic evidence consistent with the family stories.
hybrids happen when population is low
By cinnamngrl
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 9:35am
And actually that seems consistent with SwirlyGrrls story. The local bobcat population got very low years back. It is similar to Coywolves. If fact, the eastern coyote has interbred with timber wolves several times dating back to colonial times. That's why they look different than western coyotes.
Check out
By GFN
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 12:09pm
her statement today. Fraud
Her Statement Today
By Scratchie
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 12:28pm
Tell me, do you hate her because she's a woman, or because she's smarter than you? Or is it more of a combination of the two?
zero fraud
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 10:15am
Cultural appropriation was the actual problem. She acknowledged this harm and dealt with it. The interesting part is that Trump thinks this has hurt her. When in fact, she hasn't lost any ground since it was brought up in her first senate race.
Oink
By lbb
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 11:00am
You need to go hang with the other farm animals, you're creating an appalling stench.
Bobcat in Massachusetts
By Noemi M. Orozco
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 3:16pm
The tail isn't long ... the bobcat is scooting down so the tail is about right. It's a bobcat alright.
i S*** you not
By anon
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 11:23pm
during the craqzy winter storm in 2015 a buddy and I we driving down eneking parkway and were at the 4 way stop sign and saw what we though was a lost german sheppard, but the other guy at the stop sign drove up to us and we asked if his dog jumped out of his car window.... he said that aint no house dog. it was in the middle of the street because the snow banks were about 6' high. we got a look at it and and the thing was legit a wolf ( i guess a coywolf) and it trotted twards turtle pond and we followed it until it found an opening in the banks, went into the woods and crouched on a rock and watched us. we flipped a b*tch and stopped and starred at it. we tossed it some snacks out the window but i wouldnt move again. pretty crazy
It's a done deal, but please...
By lbb
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 11:16am
...do not feed wild animals. Ever. Anything. It is always ultimately harmful to them and sometimes to people as well.
I was
By Luke Warm
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 3:54pm
jogging once and I believe it was a coy wolf that crossed the trail right behind me as I just happened turn and see it. enormous. either it was a coy wolf, or an actual wolf, but it looked to me just like a wild wolf and not a coyote, the latter I have seen a lot of prior. this was in 2012. whatever huge not-dog form it was, it was not interested in me thankfully.
Bobcat
By Biscuit The Cat
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 6:45pm
Its body is turned so you're seeing the entire tail not just the tip.
Puts the WOW
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 11:32am
in MEOW!
Looks like a Bobcat to me
By George_Apley
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 11:33am
Cool to have one in the area!
Quite a cat! Nice photos!
By anon
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 11:47am
Quite a cat! Nice photos!
Interesting
By Jon Carry
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 1:28pm
Bobcats have camo fur, even the young, lots of spots. Their ears are also more pointed with small tufts of fur sticking out of the tips. They are predominantly nocturnal. So I would have guessed that this isn't a bobcat. But it sure looks big enough!
More or less
By Sock_Puppet
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 4:11pm
I have now, happily, looked at several pictures of bobcats. They're not all terribly spotty.
For example, this golfer-chomping villain from Connecticut:
[img]https://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/P0_nq40NOoEGYS...
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-conne...
Looks pretty similar, just a little more tabbyish.
Or this proud feline, from Maine:
[img]https://media.newscentermaine.com/assets/WCSH/imag...
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local...
Looks a bit bigger, but even less spotty. Notice the lack of ear tufts, but presence of furry jowls, on this one. I'm guessing it's a tom.
Local adaptation?
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 7:16pm
Sometimes variations become adaptations if such lighter coloration allows them to operate in different environments (grass vs woodlands, for example) or hunt better over the winter.
Bear in mind that much of their prey is gray-blind.
identification
By Lisfnord
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 3:38pm
Mary Ellen, perhaps you should share the photo with Mass Audubon, or Fish & Wildlife?
Please do
By anon
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 7:18pm
they'll tell you it's not a bobcat or mountain lion.
That's Robert Feline
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 10:22pm
If I ever saw one.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/...
That ain't no mountain lion
By Anon
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 8:14pm
Or puma. Or cougar. Or catamount. WAY too small, both vertically and horizontally. Besides, there haven't been any mountain lions inside Massachusetts in a couple of centuries.
I have two Maine Coons -- there's no Coon Cat there.
As noted before, I think it's a bobcat whose coat is genetically different from most.
The Types of Wild Cats in
By anon
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 2:51pm
The Types of Wild Cats in Massachusetts
https://sciencing.com/types-wild-cats-massachusett...
Is Bob Crosby's band
By Turalura Lipschitz
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 3:55pm
playing in town this weekend?
They sound like a high pitched human voice
By anon
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 7:16pm
Screaming when they mate.Creepy.
F1 Savannah Cat
By Luke Warm
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 8:42pm
it probably is not, but it might be F2 or F3.
I think that is either bred with a mountain lion, which seems not plausible because 1) mountain lions don't exist in Mass except when they do, and 2) a mountain lion would probably devour the domestic cat after banging it--or, it is a "Savannah" cat
When I lived in Atlanta
By CT
Sun, 08/18/2019 - 10:39pm
I had an "Atlanta" cat.
Can't be
By cinnamngrl
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 12:21pm
You can't register as a Savanah without the spots. It is Serval Hybrid. If you look at all the images of Bobcats available, this cat is well within the range.
perhaps
By Luke Warm
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 3:56pm
it has a fairly recent serval ancestor and is not registered
or its a bobcat.
By cinnamngrl
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 4:03pm
or its a bobcat.
That color morph is called
By Ultra Green
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 2:07pm
That color morph is called Goldthwait.
Bobcats in West Roxbury
By Michael Sumner
Mon, 08/19/2019 - 11:51pm
The bobcats which I and others saw in West Roxbury where Georgetown is now, looked similar to that one but usually has some stripes like a tabby and or some spots. They weighed between 20 and 25 pounds or possibly a little more. Some (not all) had very short bob tails. I never saw any after Georgetown was built so I assumed that they moved north toward Turtle Pond and the golf course.
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