The Blantons were out doing yard work and chores when they caught a bobcat attacking their chickens in broad daylight this past Sunday, January 20th.
They live in the 4X Ranch subdivision just a few miles from the Moore Post Office (between Moore and about 9 miles from Yancey).
“Neighbors, be careful,” said Mrs. Mary Blanton in a message to the news office this week.
“I was on the riding lawnmower cutting the grass, and my husband William was filling the water for the sheep and goats when he saw the chickens scatter. He went over there to look and that’s when he saw a bobcat with one of the chickens in his mouth,” Blanton said.
“Now he’s in the freezer because my husband wants to have him stuffed! We’ve had chickens get killed before, but we’ve never seen anything like this happen. What really gets me is the bobcat walking up in the middle of the day like that while we were outside. He must have been pretty hungry.”
The Blantons moved into the fairly new subdivision and development in Moore about two years ago, where they have about 15 acres.
Local Texas Parks and Wildlife Biologist Matt Reidy reminds residents that it is perfectly legal for people to kill bobcats.
“This is certainly weird behavior for a Bobcat,” Reidy said, “but it doesn’t surprise me without knowing the circumstances or story behind this bobcat. Could it be rabid? Possibly. Did somebody keep it as a pet and then let it go in the area? Maybe. Those are the questions I think of when I hear about a Bobcat walking up near people in broad daylight. Either way, I am glad they went ahead and killed it. Lethal removal was the best option in this situation.”
“We get calls all the time for people wanting us to trap problem predators like bobcats, but it is perfectly legal for you to hunt them yourself. You do need a Hunting License unless you are in a situation where you are defending your property,” Reidy said.
Shortly after this story was written, the Moralez family contacted us about a Bobcat that had come into their backyard over and over again killing dozens of animals. Their property is located behind the Unison Drilling area, where we’ve also seen big development of new subdivisions just down the road near Bigfoot.
“We’ve always had chickens, and we never had a problem with bobcats coming into the yard before,” said Lorenzo Moralez Sr. “Being so brave to come up to my brother’s back door… I just couldn’t believe it. He was hungry. The bobcat would literally come right into the yard and take them. My brother Richard had 50 animals–chickens, ducks, and geese–and now he’s down to about 5 left. That happened in about a 2 month time span. We have Great Dane dogs too and this cat was so good they didn’t even bark. The other day my brother noticed the bobcat had taken one of their geese and also killed another goose that it buried beneath some leaves in the yard. I told my brother, get ready, he is coming back tonight to get that goose. Sure enough, about 10 o clock he came back. The bobcat avoided all of the traps we had set out, but my brother found him out behind his home and had it blinded with a spotlight, so he called me, and I brought my rifle over. This bobcat was 34 pounds. It’s the biggest cat I’ve ever seen…” and it should be considering “It ate everything around here!”
Not all Bobcats have spots
Interestingly enough, the color variations of bobcats can vary quite a bit and Reidy has photographs of bobcats that don’t have spots and really look more like a Mountain Lions to the untrained eye.
“I’ve seen some really cool colors on Bobcats. Some that look similar to an Ocelot and some Bobcats that look very similar to a Mountain Lion. You can tell the difference by looking at the head and ears. A bobcat has a big head with a smaller body, whereas a Mountain Lion has a smaller head with a larger body. A bobcat’s ears are big and erect with a black/white/black coloration on their ears, and a Mountain Lion’s ears are more rounded.”
