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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Just as Buck Deer make "scrapes" in the soil and on branches during their rut, so do male bobcats during their typical late February breeding season............."The tom crouches, brings his hind feet forward behind his planted fore feet, and proceeds to push his hind feet backwards in succession"......."The piled substrate that he creates serves as both a visual and aroma-rich scent mark that lets bobcats post their social status and signal the occupancy of a given habitat, which allows them to mediate possible competition and fighting"............."the males will continue to wander their entire territory and scent-mark throughout his neighboring females’ core areas".................... "Making scrapes is a step away from making kittens; he’s not just pussyfooting around"

http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/tracking-tips-bobcat-scrapes



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Tracking Tips: Bobcat Scrapes
Bobcat using hind feet to push scrape materials into a mound. Photos by Susan C. Morse.

It’s late February, and a tom bobcat is eagerly sauntering along – something is in the air! Lengthening daylight and warming temperatures signal the arrival of courting and breeding season.
He parallels the edge of the cliff until another trail emerges, seemingly out of nowhere. At this intersection, he pauses under a dense pine and makes what is called a “scrape,” or “scratch,” in the snow-free needle duff under the tree. Unlike ephemeral tracks, scrapes tend to last. Indeed, scrapes are the most reliable sign we can find wherever any of the world’s wild felids are in residence and communicating with one another.
The tom crouches, brings his hind feet forward behind his planted fore feet, and proceeds to push his hind feet backwards in succession. The result is a shallow, rectangular trough that culminates in a small, conspicuous pile of absorbent materials – typically conifer needles, moss, soft earth, or leaves. The piled substrate serves as both a visual and aroma-rich scent mark that lets bobcats post their social status and signal the occupancy of a given habitat, which allows them to mediate possible competition and fighting. Today, the amorous tom proclaims his reproductive potential – using the scrape as a kind of personals ad. No other animal makes exactly the same sign. The smooth-edged trough is consistently a touch wider than the side-by-side placement of the hind feet that scratched and scuffed to produce the scrape’s mound. Edge to edge, I have measured 4.5 to 5.5 inches for an average North Woods bobcat scrape, and twice that large, 8.5 to 10 inches, for a cougar’s. In snow, soft earth, or sand, the planted front-feet tracks can often be seen.
Tracking Tips: Bobcat Scrapes Image
Larger scrape made by an Arizona cougar.
Dogs and their wild canid cousins are much admired for their sense of smell. But make no mistake – bobcats and all other species of cats are all about olfaction, too. Urine or feces are sometimes deposited on the scrape, and pedal scent derived from sebaceous glands on the bobcat’s feet is incorporated into it. Our tom bobcat will continue to wander and scent-mark throughout his neighboring females’ core areas. Making scrapes is a step away from making kittens; he’s not just pussyfooting around.
Tracking Tips: Bobcat Scrapes Image
Planted front foot tracks at the bottom and scrape trough with feces at the top.

Susan C. Morse is founder and program director of Keeping Track in Huntington, Vermont.

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