Cat sign

Hurrul

Hurrul

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I have seen plenty of herbivore bone sign over my years, very rarely do I come across the bones of a pure predator.

On a day trip in a local area (somewhere in SW Montana) my lady and I came across this:
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From the limited story presented (skull/spine/ribs were not large, but it's preserved paw was a definite tawny color and larger than a domestic kitty but smaller than the large cat prints I have observed) I speculate this was a young mountain lion or even a mature bobcat. I lean more to the mountain lion.

Perhaps a teenager on it's own, alone in a hard winter (actually had a hard winter this year) after mom give it the boot. Or something happened to mom and left on it's own, it was not able to overcome the winter or possible predation of a male lion that claimed the area as it's territory.

Part of me wanted to bring it out, but a part of me thought the remains should just live on in the world they lived in.

Still, this is the closest I have come to actually seeing a big cat, though their other signs of life are abundant in the region.

Thanks for reading.
 
The Zieg said:
Bobcat?

Zieg
Click to expand...

I believe it is possible for it to be a bobcat, but I am not skilled enough to say for sure based on what I observed. Bobcats do have a mottled coat, with black and/or dark spotting over much of their back/flanks/belly and spotting can also can appear on the legs. While the spotting was not present on the little paw fur that was remaining, that does not mean it was definitively a mountain lion and not a bobcat.

Bobcats have ears that are shaped a bit different and can have tufts of hair at the tips, but since the coat was gone, those characteristics were missing, too.

Mountain lions have spots at birth and as they mature through their adolescent stage of growth the spots fade and eventually disappear.

An interesting point of reference is that Bobcats have big paws for their body size, to help them float on snow (similar to a lynx) and perhaps a direct comparison between the differing species of feet would make for a more solid ID...

Thanks for reading.
 
That is an extremely cool find, especially so intact. I do a fair amount of ADC work and much of it is predator control. I am 99% sure that is a bobcat carcass. I am chalking that up to two things that stand out in your pictures: the color of the foot and lower leg hair visible, and the shape and size of the eye sockets.

In my experience even juvenile mountain lions will transition in color from tawny brown on the lower leg to black on the underside of the foot, while a bobcat is more brown-mottled higher up, transitioning to grey/blue above and then to black underneath. It seems to me the picture of the foot fur shows the latter. There is not much fur to base that on, but that's the way it appears in the pictures if the tint is showing up correctly on my screen.

The bigger tell to me is the skull. When I scrolled down to your pictures, my mind fired off 'bobcat!' before I got down to the lower text to see there was some doubt. Some of that comes from things I can't describe, just that I've looked at many of them. However, below is a picture of a large tom mountain lion skull next to a large tom bobcat skull, with a Buck 110 for some size comparison. Note that the eye sockets of the bobcat are large and relatively wide in comparison with the rest of the skull, more so than they are on the lion. The eye sockets in the skull you photographed appear to have the same relationship relative to the skull as I would expect for a bobcat.

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I'm curious, could you see the bones of the tail? The length of the tail would be a dead giveaway if still intact. Also, was it shot between the eyes? It appears there is a hole between the eyes, but I can't tell for sure in the pictures. Cool find, cheers man.
 
The bigger tell to me is the skull. When I scrolled down to your pictures, my mind fired off 'bobcat!' before I got down to the lower text to see there was some doubt. Some of that comes from things I can't describe, just that I've looked at many of them. However, below is a picture of a large tom mountain lion skull next to a large tom bobcat skull, with a Buck 110 for some size comparison. Note that the eye sockets of the bobcat are large and relatively wide in comparison with the rest of the skull, more so than they are on the lion. The eye sockets in the skull you photographed appear to have the same relationship relative to the skull as I would expect for a bobcat.

0vBX3BK.jpg

0jMbCwY.jpg


I'm curious, could you see the bones of the tail? The length of the tail would be a dead giveaway if still intact. Also, was it shot between the eyes? It appears there is a hole between the eyes, but I can't tell for sure in the pictures. Cool find, cheers man.[/QUOTE]

Greetings Hard Knocks -

I was hoping someone with more actual knowledge than I about this ID topic might wander into this thread.

The space and size of the orbital area makes sense - thanks for the photo comparison showing the respective feline species.

As I reflect on the episode, I see that my excitement at the time, was not helping me make the most of the opportunity to make thoughtful observations. Unfortunately, in my excited mind I did not consider looking for the remains of a tail, and as you state, it would have been the clincher in IDing this had the specimen still had tail parts.

Also, I did not consider the hole in the front of the skull you mention, but I do see it in the picture. I don't recall another obvious hole indicating a bullet entrance or exit somewhere else on the cranium, but memory is not serving me clearly in this regard.

I hope to get back to the area in the next couple of weekends and I have a pretty good recollection of the area and spot this was hanging out in....but, the specimen was photographed in January, and the remains certainly could be moved or disturbed by now. If not by other wild critters, than by some x-country skier's dog...

If I do re-find this, I will follow up.

Thanks again for the thoughtful response and clarification.
 
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