YOU THINK A BOBCAT CANT KILL A DEER!

Saw this on Facebook...

YOU THINK A BOBCAT CANT KILL A DEER!
Something I’ve never seen, and been hunting all my life.
It happened while deer hunting yesterday.
This Bobcat shot out on Green field, jumped on this little Deer and road it down in about 3 seconds and grabbed it by the throat.
I was able to get a shot on cat and killed him but he was still clinched on the deers throat. I shot the deer for a mercy killing.
When I got down and went to them the cat was still attached to the throat.
Dragged them across the field and still attached.
Had to pry the jaws of the cat off the deer 2 hours later and the deers throat was slashed.

Awesome experience!

They sure can.

Thanks for sharing!

Appears so.

wildcat lynch told of it many many yrs ago. Thanks for the pics

While living in Virgina I shot a bobcat that was on top of a deer.

Stories in MI of bobcats jumping on the heads of deer and how brutal the attack was.

Watched the whole thing.Bobcat leaped of a rock ledge onto the deer and was bringing it down when I shot the bobcat.

A trapper and Game Warden here in Coke County, R.L. Flanagan told me once, "If you are seeing cats in the daylight, you have a cat problem." The young cats will move during the daylight to avoid the mature toms at night...

Wow...thats pretty Awesome account! Predators & Prey!

Yup

Pretty cool! Thanks for sharing!

Yep, I've heard they can and believe it, especially after this. Nature is awesome.

Thanks for sharing the story and pictures. Old Lynch and Arnold both wrote that they had seen sign or witnessed several time that bobcats take deer.
thanks
Mac

I got that cat. It was a friend of my who shot it while sitting in a green field. Once in a life time movie there he saw. Thing about it the cat had a cripple front foot and wouldn't a fully grown tom either. I trap a pile of cats and coyotes on that land. Were getting the deer and turkeys back in there but still got a lot of work to do. That our company FB page you saw that on.

That kitty must have been hungry to do that !!!
Dennis

Just think of how many turkeys and quail they can take. Doubt deer are an every day/week kill unless the right opportunity comes along.

i bet bobcats, just like lions, bear, coyotes and even big boar coons dont pass up an opportunity to kill a fawn that just lays there like they do. would not surprise me if possums kill them. i bet this bobcat, caught a couple weeks ago was a deer killer. certainly a killer of yearlings.

Interesting Bullet. When I run my winter bait locations here in the northern bush using roadkill deer, my primary source, I do not recall ever a cat at night on my cameras. I would say the big toms are later morning, others cats early morning and mid afternoon. Same result from deer trail location cameras as well on travelers thruout the year.
My sept-oct bear baits usually have incidental fisher in the morning, and cats early evening. Both hunting the mice, chipmunks, and rabbits around those baits. Neither of those do I get at night.
The only consistent night visitor on cameras to either type of bait other than canines is.....marten.

Osky

Bobcats do that alot here in Maine come winter time.

Don't you hate it when you're having a great deer hunt and somebody comes along and messes it up?

I had read long ago that following a bobcat's #1 food source, which if course is rabbit, their #2 food source is deer. That's always stuck in my head -probably because it's so hard to believe. Looking at the size of that cat next to that small deer, makes me think maybe it is true...? Of course, I'd guess it would likely vary from one area/region to another, but interesting to think about.

That would explain my cat catches after the morning check. Most all have been young cats, both male and female.

Where do you deer hunt that the fawns still have spots? I am not doubting the story just wondering where hunting season starts that early.

Our archery season starts the 2 weekend of Sept down here in GA...fawns still have spots. We’ll see an occasional spotted fawn/fawns in December, lol.

Once in awhile a late fawn around here will still have spots.

Sooooo you mean the bobcat didn’t actually kill that deer, just attacked it. I remember the first time I called an attack a kill.

Man... what an amazing experience! Thanks for sharing.

Don't doubt it, I skinned that same cat yesterday. Killed three days ago. Them not spots on that deer 100% sure of that.

On our FB page people send us videos a lot of times with coyotes and cats being filmed with cell phones killing deer. Got one a while back of a red fox taking a fawn in a guy yard.

I hope our bobcats get good at that! I'd much rather have them around than deer.

Bobcats are brazen predators, I have never caught one in the act but I have found smaller frames deer partially eaten and covered up in leaf debris.

ITSdeer season there?

Who ever questioned that bobcat kill deer? I thought that was common knowledge.

I wonder pound for pound which Cat species kills the largest prey regularly. Lions kill monstrous cape buffalo, Cougars solo kill Elk, Jaguars kill Cattle, Bobcats kill deer.

This pride of 30 lions regularly kills elephants, some of pretty decent size. There are other videos of the same pride.



Keith

IMO another important food source is packrats. You don't hear that much but I am convinced its true. I believe it is what they are hunting when they get caught in that rimrock everybody likes to set. Here in KS you find a hedge row with multiple rat nests it is as likely a spot as that thick overgrown patch of rabbit habitat. Old farm machinery, old shed, anyplace you see packrat nests can be a good place to catch one.

Thanks for sharing. That's very interesting.

Isn't it early for fawns?

Those aren't spots y'all are seeing.

We have jack rabbits out here bigger than that deer

A friend had this on his trail camera a number of years ago. They found the covered remains of the deer later when they went to check the camera.

BB here in Wis bobcats regularly take down deer in 150 range, buddy has trail cam pics or cat on deer with paw turning head. When he picked up trail cam chip after seeing picture, he went back and found the big doe dead and partially eaten.

Tom the one who shot the cat told me today them pictures of that cat and deer he first posted on Down South Trappers has now been share over 3200 times in two days mostly to deer hunting pages. This could only help trapping now days seeing how folks are into deer hunting so much.

My question is, who would think that a bobcat wouldn’t or couldn’t kill a deer ? In the 50’s and 60’s NY had a bounty on cats because there were so many confirmed cat, deer kills in the wintering yards.
My uncle hunted them with hounds back then and regularly killed 20-30 cats annually, and he captured many of the hunts on film.

I don’t think they kill them down here as much as maybe up north where they might have too in order to survive. We have too many other easier prey to catch. As much as I’m in the woods I’ve never found anything that would resemble a bobcat killed deer.

Good lookin' Cat!

i dont think bobcats kill a lot of deer anyplace. its been said by biologists that an adult lion manages to kill deer about once for every four attempts. i bet the odds are lots worse for bobcats.

We gut a pile of spring coyotes ever year and mostly what inside of them in spring is grass. There just not that much for them to eat that time of year. One female cat I gutted this week had been eating grass also and is not the first cat I've seen that been eating grass. When blackberries and baby deer come in coyotes and cats hunting anything they can. We get to many videos sent to our trapping site of fox, coyotes and cats killing deer and turkeys.

They can kill as many deer as they want here. They are blamed for a massive decline (right or wrong) in our quail population.

Cats are pure death on fowl. Turkeys, quail, even ducks. I wish they would hit the deer more than the others. I believe when it comes to newborn fawns, everything from boar coons to raptors will take an easy meal if stumbled across one.

X2

Most of the biologost studies on bobcat stomach contents I've read showed extremely high percentage of sampled cats had dined on rabbit around here. Squirrel and birds were like second and third. A fawn would be the exception. Possible yes, but not a mainstay diet item.
Jim

Yeah, you can take biologists studies to the bank , ROFLMAO. Here in NY the lead furbearer biologist in Region 6 told me he has a hard time telling the difference between a Marten and squirrel track.

They also state, coyotes and black bear do not kill many deer . I guess a whitetail fawn isn’t considered a deer ??????

June is the big month for deer consumption here in Texas. Makes sense. Momma raises the kittens by herself. Needs a quick, big, meal so she can return to the nest quickly. Deer are easy to stalk and kill. Bang. Stomach content studies at Texas A&M show venison as the #1 content in June. Much less so after that.

When I get a call about steady deer killing late spring, early summer, I think cat. And it's amazing how many 120 lb. does a 15-16 pound momma cat can kill as other critters come behind her and consume the carcass quick (coyotes/buzzards/hogs).

Never did answer this question.I looked into Texas regulations a bit,,and unless I missed something,it seemed season was over.

This. When we have a decent deer population in the north here The Bobcats along with bears, coyotes, wolves and I'm sure the golden eagles in the spring key primarily on the deer fawns.
Our deer do get a second hit from cats in the winters like this with deep snow as the deer are bunched up tight in low thick cedar and spruce bogs. Prime hunting country for a patient stalker.

Osky

There was a study done in Florida, reported in an outdoor magazine about 25 years ago. I want to say from what I remember they estimated over 18 percent of the fawn crop were removed by Bobcat in the test area. I think it was Sports Afield. I'm not sure.