![]() ![]() Males aren't sexually mature until two years of age, and few females produce a litter before their second year. The mating season normally occurs during late February or March in Wisconsin, but breeding may keep going for an extended period of time. Irregular black spots and blotches give the bobcat a dappled appearance and provide camouflage as it hunts for prey in thick underbrush.Ä«obcats take several different mates during their lifetime. During spring and summer, the coat may have a reddish tone, thus the scientific name rufus, which is Latin for red. The dark gray or tan colored fur on the bobcat's back gradually fades into a white or cream-colored underbelly. Bobcat tracks are slightly larger than a house cat's tracks, while the Canada lynx tracks are more than 4 inches across. The Canada lynx, a protected species, is Wisconsin's only other feline that could be mistaken for a bobcat, and the two can be distinguished by the bobcat being smaller in size and having irregular dark markings only on the top half of their tail and shorter tufts of hair on the ear tips. Identifying features of both sexes are short "bobbed" tails and sideburn cheek whiskers. Females average about 1/3 smaller than the males. Adult bobcats normally weigh about 20 pounds, but large 40-pound males have been reported in Wisconsin. It wasn't until 1970 that some protection was offered, when a 5 1/2-month harvest season was established. The cats were killed without restriction for both sport and bounty for nearly a century, as the early settlers considered them a threat to livestock. Bobcats were once common throughout Wisconsin, but as the settlers cleared woodlands for farming, their range became more limited to the northern part of the state. The bobcat, lynx rufus, is about twice the size of its distant cousin, the common domestic cat, and it has been called wildcat, bay lynx, lynx cat and red lynx. ![]()
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