Bobcat (wild) (41 images)

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All the images showcased in this gallery are of truly wild, non-captive bobcats. Most were either photographed in California or Washington State. Over most of our lifetime truly wild bobcat images were very few and far between. Most bobcat encounters were short, fleeting sightings of one to three seconds. I remember telling someone I had seen about 20 bobcats over my lifetime in the out-of-doors for a total of about 30 seconds.

Throughout most of my lifetime, the few actually wild bobcat photos available seemed to come either from a couple wildlife refuges in Florida or from someone who had sat in a blind by a waterhole in Texas.

About 5 to six years ago that began to change and we started hearing of other photographers having photographable opportunities with wild bobcats throughout the West. These were mostly of the 30 second to five minute type of experience where the bobcat was not totally afraid of people but not sticking around either. We have now had a number of these type of photographic opportunities over the last 5 years with truly wild bobcats. I certainly thought this was about as good as it could get with a wild cat.

About 2 years ago I had an experience where I spent over 2 1/2 hours wandering through scrub oak hills with a wild bobcat in California. During this time it caught several gophers and spent many minutes grooming and resting. Much of this time I was within 40 to 60 feet--it was totally aware of me and didn't seem to care. I was certainly trying to be a good companion and not make loud noises or fast, quick movements. I believed at the time that this was a once in a lifetime experience.

Now this last fall I had a similar experience with another wild bobcat in the lowlands of western Washington. I spent about 3 hours following it around an old abandon homestead meadow. It caught several voles, chased a couple birds and did not seem to be at all fearful of my presence. Like the experience in California I felt truly bless and fortunate to have had the encounter. Hopefully you enjoy some of these images.
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