What Is Considered A Big Bobcat?

[Hunter X]

I went out this weekend and got lucky and glassed up a bobcat. This is only the second bobcat I've ever glassed in 20+ years of hunting. This thing looked very big almost like a big dog. I got about 5 seconds of video I'll post as soon as I can. This cat looked huge! I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to these but it looked like it had to way at least 50 lbs. My question is how big is a big bobcat?

[firstcoueswas80]

I glassed one Saturday that walked behind 2 big bucks, and one small buck... He looked like he was as big as the smaller buck.. Id venture to say that was a big bobcat as well!

[Huntaholic]

How about this one http://www.vimeo.com/2145716 sorry about the quality and shakiness.

[firstcoueswas80]

Looks like a big one for sure! Looks close enough, wheres the 22-250 hole in it?

[coueschaser3]

well i personally have seen alot of dead/live bobcats. and can tell you that as big as some are or look its an absolute rarity to find one over 20+ lbs especially in arizona. any cat over 18 lbs would be a HUGE bobcat. I think i have seen one actually weighed over 20 and barely. But congratulations seein a big bobcat is always fun....i glassed one up in 36c once and for a few minutes of partial view thought i glassed up the baboquivari jaguar

 

Physical Appearance

 

 

Bobcats are closely related to the lynx; however, it is half the size of the Canadian lynx. The bobcat can also be distinguished from the lynx by the markings on its tail; whereas the lynx has a black tip to its tail that goes completely around its tail, the bobcat's had a white underside with the coloration and markings on the top half. Bobcats also lack the hair on the soles of their feet that lynxes have. The tufts on the ends of their ears tend to be smaller, and their ruff not as prominent.

 

They can be a reddish brown to a light grey, with white underside and black spots on the legs, and black markings on the face. They have the distinctive ruff on the sides of their head and black tufts on the tips of their ears. Bobcats in the southern parts of their range tend to have more vibrant markings than those further north, and tend to be smaller. Both melanistic (black) and leucistic (white) bobcats have been reported, but the melanistic ones have only been found in Florida. Like many species of wild felids, the bobcat has black ears with one large white spot in the middle of the back of each ear, called eyespots. It serves to signal to other felines the cat's mood; the spots are clearly present when the ears are laid backward so it may signal aggression. It gets its name from its short nubby tail.

 

Bobcats from the northern parts of their range tend to be larger on average than those further south. Larger individuals also tend to occur in open areas, wheras those from forested areas are smaller. The largest bobcat on record weighed 17.6 kg (38.8 lb).

http://www.lioncrusher.com/animal.asp?animal=41.

[coueschaser3]

But then again i just found another number of 22.2 kg which equates to 49.9lbs out of northern wisconsin. still under 50 but wow huge cat thing is a hog!

bob.bmp

[mattobertin]

I have seen two huge bobcats. One last weekend and one a few years back. Both of them were mistakenly identified as a mountain lion from a distance! I don't have a positive idea what these things should weigh but if a big one is 20 lbs these were bigger than that. They looked like they were the size of a small lynx.

[billrquimby]

>>>>>>>>>>>well i personally have seen alot of dead/live bobcats. and can tell you that as big as some are or look its an absolute rarity to find one over 20+ lbs especially in arizona. any cat over 18 lbs would be a HUGE bobcat. I think i have seen one actually weighed over 20 and barely. But congratulations seein a big bobcat is always fun....>>>>>>>>

 

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

Bill Quimby

[mattobertin]

>>>>>>>>>>>well i personally have seen alot of dead/live bobcats. and can tell you that as big as some are or look its an absolute rarity to find one over 20+ lbs especially in arizona. any cat over 18 lbs would be a HUGE bobcat. I think i have seen one actually weighed over 20 and barely. But congratulations seein a big bobcat is always fun....>>>>>>>>

 

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

Bill Quimby

Maybe the cats i saw just had a lot of hair or something! LOL! The size of them may be decieving as to what they really weigh but I would compare them as far as height and length to a good size coyote. Maybe they are less than 20 lbs. but they are still alot bigger than any others i have seen.

[COOSEFAN]

Here's the biggest one I've had my hands on. I seriously thought this one was in the 20+ pound range but never weighed it so who knows, it sure felt every bit of 20+ pounds!

 

 

 

I think bobcats are just like bears and lions, you really need a prickly pear cactus, a barrel cactus or something else of consistent, predictable size near them to have a better chance at evaluating size.....they all look big and big ones look even bigger, especially on the hoof.......er...Paw!

[Hunter X]

That looks like one heck of a bobcat COOSEFAN. The one I saw looked a lot like that one so I guess I was way off thinking it weighed at least 50 lbs. After read all the post I'm thinking it probably was between 20-30 lbs but no less than 20. My wife wiener dogs weighs 17 lbs and this cat was quite a bit bigger than the dog. Like you said you need something there to compare its size with like a prickly pear or something similar. The only thing I had was grass and mesquite so it was hard for me to do this. I hate to admit this but when I first saw him I mistaken him for a lion until I saw the tail. It was only 175 yards away slowly walking up a hill. Should have been an easy shot if I had a gun but I was helping my uncle on a mule deer hunt so I didn't have a gun with me just the binos.

[.270]

depends on how long they live. a lot are not much bigger than a housecat. some are. in the late 70's my grandad found a place that was full of foxes. he was trapping a dozen or so a day. then what he thought was a lion moved in and was running his traps for him, and eating the foxes. he had experience with lions doing this quite a few times. he found one that it had just started to eat and assumed he had scared it off. he made a lion set for it with a #6 trap and called me and asked if i'd go with and trail it up and shoot it. a guy who knows what he's doing can trap a lion quite easily on a kill and he was real confident he would have it. he sure enough did. only it was a bobcat. he was 53 inches from his nose to his stretched out hind feet and weighed 58 pounds. he sold it for nearly $1000. i'd guess he trapped over 1000 bobcats in his life and his brother probably caught twice that or more. neither one had seen a bobcat like that. they had caught some they were sure were probably over 40 pounds, but nothing like this one. he had a front paw like a fair sized lion. i know there is at least one photo of it. i've shot a couple that were over 30 real easy. but most of them are probably less than 20 pounds. saw a photo of one a guy shot this weekend that will go around 30. Lark.

[Kilimanjaro]

Ive probably shot around 30 or so bobkittys and the biggest Ive ever taken was on a ranch near Post, TX in the panhandle.. It went 37lbs. We were up there on an aoudad hunt and decided to do a bit of calling once dark. We called that cat in from over 1/2 a mile away and I ended up shooting him at around 10ft!! Most of the cats I've shot were an average of 17 to 20lbs.

The biggest cat Ive ever seen came from Comstock, TX right on the TX/Mex border. My buddy is the gov't trapper for that county and is paid to keep the cat and lions in check in that part of Val Verde county. He caught one in a lion setup that went 48 or 49lbs. I cant remember which it was. Either way, the cat was unreal. He had been giving that ranch all kinds of problems. He was a goat kid killing fool. When Jack caught a cat or lion, he usually just took the cat down to the county Ag. office to get the bounty $$ and then just hung them on the fence at the ranch where he caught them. This cat he had lifesize mounted.

[tomgobbler]

i trap and call a bunch and i weigh generally everything, MOST arizona cats will run between 16-20 pounds or so, but the good toms will go up to about 30 pounds, i had a guy call me yesterday and say he had a 35 + pound cat and wanted to bring it in to my taxidermy shop to have a rug made out of it, so he brought it in and we put it on the scale and it weighed 22 pounds he figured it "shrunk" 15 pounds in the back of his truck..... it was a nice bif tom and and he went on my large stretcher. but they just dont get that big it weight as a general rule. the largest i got last year was 28 pounds, and i think the largest the year before that was 31 pounds, but rarely will they break 35 puonds around here, the one in the video i'de say was a nice tom in the 20-25 pound range, cousefans cant would be around that same weight. Yotes are the same, i have guys all the time call me and say man i just shot a 40 pound yote, and the bring him in and hes about 25-28 pounds..... anyway

just my 2 cents worth in all that i weigh each year, they just dont have the weight that most people think they do.

tommy

[WHT_MTNMAN]

This is my best He measures 40 inches from nose to tail.. I never weighed him I guess in the 25 pound range, he was a pretty big cat that was a little thin.