June 2026
Many of us love to document the natural world all around us. We use our phones and our cameras to capture everything we can see, but there are some species that we are not likely to ever see in person. Fortunately, with the help of trail cameras in use on FODR properties, we have the opportunity to document these elusive species.
Bobcats, secretive and seldom observed, are mainly nocturnal. It had been thought in the past that they were more confined to larger forested lands, but we now understand that they are habitat generalists and can be found in forests, wetlands, grasslands, edge habitats, and even farms. The only places they typically avoid are highly developed areas with lots of people. Bobcats, present throughout Virginia, are common here on the eastern side of Virginia, and abundant in the Piedmont region and westward.
Since I’ve never seen one in person, I found it difficult to understand their actual size from a photo or trail cam video. Bobcats are usually 24 to 40 inches in length and 10 to 25 pounds. I have heard their size described as twice the size of a large domestic cat. When looking at their speckled coat, large -tufted ears and muscular body, I had assumed that they were larger than they are. Watching a video of bobcats that had been rehabbed by the Wildlife Center of Virginia being released into the wild gave me a clearer understanding of their size.
While mainly nocturnal, bobcats sometimes hunt during the day. They typically eat small rodents, rabbits, squirrels, turkey, songbirds, lizards and snakes, fawns, and insects. A male bobcat’s range is up to 13 square miles while a female will have a smaller territory.
Recently we captured some wonderful video of an adult bobcat leaping over a stream that feeds into Dragon Run. About a month later we captured video of what we believe to be a juvenile bobcat walking and climbing on logs and jumping a nearby part the same stream with less grace than the adult. Another trail cam had captured separate photos in December showing a male, a female and a young bobcat all crossing a stream on the same fallen log. I, for one, am so excited to know that we have bobcats thriving on FODR properties!
