A 30-Second Encounter––

Locking Eyes With A Bobcat

By Dottie Evans

It happened three weeks ago, but Mt Pleasant Terrace resident Steven Ford can remember his chance encounter with a bobcat as though it were yesterday.

He was walking alone in the woods behind his home, following a seldom-used trail near an old pump house along the shores of Taunton Lake. He had been watching an eagle diving for fish in shallow waters and was just turning around to head home. He did not realize there was a bobcat right behind him on the trail.

When he and the bobcat suddenly found themselves face-to-face, they both could not have been more surprised.

“There it was only about five feet away. I could see it wasn’t going to move until I moved. So I lurched to the right and walked a little way away, then looked back again.

“We stared at each other for about 30 seconds, and I got an impression of its round face and big eyes. When I moved to the side to try to see its body, it turned around and ran off into the woods. That’s when I knew for sure what it was.”

Mr Ford is an experienced outdoorsman and trapper. He has spotted bear, coyotes, foxes, and bobcats in the wild before, but never this close.

“I’ve seen bobcat in the Adirondack Mountains. The short stubby tale and golden brown body gave it away,” he said.

The woods where this encounter took place is part of an extensive rocky and forested hillside between Mt Pleasant Road and Taunton Lake behind the old reservoir that includes land owned by the Archdiocese of Bridgeport and by the Newtown Fish and Game Club. Combined, the two properties may total at least 150 acres of natural, unspoiled woodland habitat adjoining the lake.

When he got home, Mr Ford contacted the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Wildlife Division about the sighting and was told that seeing a bobcat in the Newtown area was “not all that unusual.”

“I was wondering if I should warn the neighbors,” Mr Ford said, “but they told me there would be no danger to children.” Small domestic pets might be another matter.

Bobcats have been known to prey on cats and small dogs, as well as chickens, and their numbers are up, according to Paul Rego, DEP fur-bearing wildlife specialist. This is because the bobcat has moved into a void left recently by a die-off in the raccoon population about ten years ago, when a rabies epidemic swept through Connecticut. Though raccoons hunt in small family groups and bobcats hunt alone, their prey, such as chickens, rabbits, frogs and rodents, may be similar.

Like all the wild cats of North American, bobcats are strictly carnivorous, eating anything from grasshoppers, snakes, and frogs to grouse and even deer, if they can attack a deer while it is bedded down.

Of all people to meet a bobcat in a Newtown forest, Mr Ford was well-suited to the experience.

He grew up in upstate New York, he said, where fishing and trapping were a “way of life.” Having moved to Newtown with his family about 15 years ago, he works as a butcher in area meat markets, and he is an expert deer skinner whose skills are in demand during hunting season.

“I had been a trapper for several years in upstate New York near Rochester, so I knew what I was seeing. I’ve seen coyotes in this woods, and a black bear was sighted seven or eight years ago near Exit 9,” Mr Ford said.

Bobcats are not large, weighing only 15 to 40 pounds. But they are fearless, relentless hunters that cover huge territories of up to 20 miles or more, according to Mr Rego. They hunt alone, and prefer exactly the sort of territory that Connecticut now offers in abundance –– brushy edges, hills, valleys, and mature forests.

A century ago, when most Connecticut land was cleared for farming, the bobcats would not have been so numerous. Their need for extensive forest in which to roam, however, does limit their population, since many of the state’s mature woodlands are becoming fragmented due to increasing development.

Trapping or hunting of bobcats was banned in the 1970s, and Mr Ford said he would certainly rather see this beautiful wild creature alive in its native territory than anywhere else. An adaptable animal, the bobcat may be seen in any of the “lower 48” states.

“They are very shy and quiet, which is why it’s pretty exciting to see one,” said Mr Ford.

“Bobcats are very territorial. Basically Newtown is 60 square miles, and that amount of land might support two or maximum three adults. I know a lot of folks who walk their dogs in these woods. Mostly the bobcat would run the other way and they would never see it,” he said.

“If I hadn’t turned around, I wonder what would have happened. It was walking right toward my back and it stopped dead in its tracks. Bobcats are extremely strong for their size,” Mr Ford noted.

Like all cats, they are wary but curious.

Mr Ford might be curious, as well, about what would have happened if he had not turned around.