The bobcat is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2002. It has distinctive black bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby tail. The bobcat breeds from winter into spring and has a gestation period of about two months.
About Bobcat in brief
The bobcat is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2002. It has distinctive black bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby tail. The bobcat breeds from winter into spring and has a gestation period of about two months. Two subspecies are recognised, one east of the Great Plains, and the other west of theGreat Plains. It resembles other species of the midsize genus Lynx, but is on average the smallest of the four. Its coat is variable, though generally tan to grayish-brown, with black streaks on the body and dark bars on the fore legs and tail. Bobcats in the desert regions of the southwest have the lightest-colored coats, while those in the northern, forested regions are darkest. Kittens born well-furred and already have their spots have been sighted in Florida, New Brunswick, Canada and Canada. The face appears wide due to ruffs of extended hair beneath the ears. Bobcat eyes are yellow with round, black pupils and it has a base of gray or yellowish-red on its back, back and sides. The nose of the bobcat is pink-red, and it is nocturnal, so it has no reception to maximize activity during the day. It prefers rabbits and hares, but it hunts insects, chickens, geese and other birds, small rodents, and deer. It first appeared during the Irvingtonian stage around 1. 8 million years ago. The elusive predator features in some Indigenous Peoples’ stories and in the folklore of European colonizers.
It’s believed to have evolved from the Eurasian lynx, which crossed into North America by way of the Bering Land Bridge during the Pleistocene, with progenitors arriving as early as 2. 6 million years old. The latest revision of cat taxonomy in 2017, by the Cat Classification Taskforce of the Cat Specialist Group recognises only two subspecies, based on phylogeographic and genetic studies, although the status of the Mexican bobcat remains under review. It remains in some of its original range, but populations are vulnerable to local extinction by coyotes and domestic animals. They were probably separated during interglacial periods in the pleistocene by the aridification of the great Plains. A second population arrived from Asia and settled in the north, developing into the modern Canada lynx. The species is thought to have diverged first, approximately 3. 24 million years years ago, from the puma, leopard cat and domestic cat lineages, dated to 7. 15 million years ago ; Lynx diverged second, approximately 4.5 million years old. It can be found in Canada, most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico, and in parts of New Mexico and New England. Although it has been hunted extensively both for sport and fur, populations have proven resilient though declining in some areas.
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This page is based on the article Bobcat published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
