Bobcat or Maine Coon? (Vanity Wildlife Question ...)

Northern Casco Bay, Maine

[skeama]

Curious if hunters/outdoors/wildlife FRs know if this is a Bobcat. Here's some details not in the picture itself:

• Norther Casco Maine near Brunswick, about 1am a couple nights ago.
• Cabin at end of tidal cove, woodsy, relatively sparsely populated. Most Maine wild animals make regular appearances in my yard. Note my black and white 1/2 coon cat in the background. (The well in is 7 inches tall for reference.) My cat grew up in the wild, raised a family in the wild, nothing scares her. She chased this cat off the property after losing patience.
• It's a night photo - I cranked the exposure, but obviously a little grainy.
• Here's why I think it's a bobcat, though I'm not an expert - I did a bit of reading and checked out bobcats on google images:
  1. Over 2ce the size of my cat - maybe 2.5.
  2. I've checked and no one nearby owns a cat like this. I am at the end of a long point jutting into Casco bay - so there are a relatively few home bases for cats. Some nearby report seeing a cat too large and wild looking to be domestic. There are no known strays in the area.
  3. Not the markings of your average mutt domestic US cat.
  4. DOES seem to be color and pattern of a bobcat.
  5. Body structure could be older coon cat ... I don't think so. Face is not that of a grown cat w/ 33% to 100% coon blood.
  6. Wide rounded ears. The only domestic cats I've ever seen with ears like this are bred mixes w/linx or other more exotic domestic mixes.
  7. Vertical bars around front legs - I've read that's the "yeah it's a bobcat" marking
  8. Can't see it in this picture ... but when it moves ... it moves like a wild rather than domestic animal - think of hyenas on wildlife shows trotting after prey in groups - it's a certain kind of trot - a certain look when they look around. I've known domestic cats all my life. They don't move this way, and they don't glance this way.
  9. I know the tail is a good identifier. Don't have a good picture of the tail. Maybe I can brighten one up.

If it is in fact a bobcat or a bobcat/linx mix, and even though my cat chased it off the property ... as if it were ... James Mott ... I know bobcats are predators. (So was my cat for her first 18 months, during which time she raised her family) ... but does a domestic cat have any reason, other than disease, even if she's a pretty capable predator herself, to avoid this bobcat?

I won't kill it, and I'd love to have it around, but I will see about having it trapped if it's a threat to local pets or even small kids.

Thanks! (and feel free to just point me to a good resource if you know the answer but don't have time to get deeply into it.)

Here it is a little bigger:

Different resolution: (Darn - this is much clearer in an image editor, but I've double checked my html pixel counts

Note: the below picture is NOT mine - it is a pretty randomly chosen picture off google images of a bobcat-linx mix ... all these cats seem to vary widely in appearance

[skeama]

OK I’m all caught up on posts.
1. Thanks for replies so far
2. Beautiful cat pics
3. I’ll post the lot of the pictures later today w/o editing them at all.
3. Chupacabra / Moose - this is not a political thread. please leave Nancy P and Hillary out of this.
4. Long limbs - agreed. Other pictures have the cat sitting and you get a better idea of limb/muscle structure.

More later- thanks ...

[brooklin]

It’s got a tail, for crying out loud! There’s another cat just in back of it. It’s just a regular cat. They were visiting in a back yard somewhere.

[steve8714]

Coons all wear the “M”, do they not?

[MassExodus]

Fun to talk about something beyond the depressing..
That's a Kitty.
Stride is all house cat, and so is the shape.

[Bikkuri]

Before you do ANYTHING with the images, save them in PNG format... change what you need to... upload to tinypic and it will produce a jpeg(jpg) automatically. PNG doesn’t lose the quality like the other formats (although it is a much larger file size).

It looks like a normal cat to me from what I can see of it ;)

[augray]

The body is that of a raccoon. I have both cats and raccoons visiting my cat food bowls outside and they interact often. The cats hiss and bat at the raccoons and the raccoons usually pay attention to that. So, having a cat and a raccoon together is very common. The nose is a bit odd looking in your photos, but it is definitely a raccoon body.

[miss marmelstein]

Beautiful cat! But since her tail is “2 liter” she is barred from my town of NYC.

[CAluvdubya]

She's gorgeous! The fur would get to me, though. I have a Ragdoll and his fur drives me up the wall (plus, he hates being brushed but gets knotted without it).

How much does she weigh?

[Mercat]

kitty ping

[skeama]

M? Not following? Thanks ...

[Biggirl]

Over to you Slings and Arrows. :)=^..^=

[M1903A1]

I thought that was a tabby characteristic? (Referring to the little “M” in the fur pattern atop their heads.)

[Moltke]

Difficult to tell given the light situation, but I'd say it's not a bobcat. Here's one in daylight.

[Slings and Arrows]

[cripplecreek]

Looks like a cat to me.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

That is a domestic cat.

[SaraJohnson]

I have a coon cat and this looks like my cat.

[SaraJohnson]

Also, that cat is being followed by another stray that has a white paw and chest. They look like they are coming from under the deck in the background.

[sockmonkey]

Also, that cat is being followed by another stray that has a white paw and chest. They look like they are coming from under the deck in the background.

Kittens in a couple months?

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Awwww... she’s beautiful!