Kaleden resident Kieran MacIntosh took this photo of a bobcat showing interest in turkeys MacIntosh raises on his property.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Kieran MacIntosh
November 12, 2020 - 6:00 AM
Kieran MacIntosh was on his Kaleden property around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 5, doing some weeding and looking in on a few turkeys he and his wife raise when he spotted a bobcat doing the same thing.
“We have these turkeys on our property but lost one a couple of weeks ago. At first, we thought it might have been a raccoon that took it, but now believe it was this bobcat,” MacIntosh said in an email.
It was the first time he’s seen the cat in the area. MacIntosh says the turkeys were “acting really weird and didn’t want to go over into the corner of the property where they normally hang out.”
“We thought it was just them acting silly, but they must have caught wind of the bobcat," MacIntosh says. "I was walking around the property and looked over by the apple tree when I saw the cat coming. It took me a few seconds to register what I was looking at. Being right in the daylight I could hardly believe it was just walking by me about 15 feet away.”
The bobcat came to within 20 feet of the turkeys before MacIntosh shooed the animal away.
"He was up and over our eight-foot deer fence in the blink of an eye," MacIntosh says.
“I wouldn’t say he was licking his chops while he stared at the turkeys, but it was clear he wanted to go after them and if I hadn’t been in the yard at the time, I’m sure we would have lost one of them. I was struck by how calm its movements were. It didn’t seem to be all that concerned with me."
He figures the cat stood about 20 inches in height, and believes the cat’s natural habitat probably lies across Highway 97 west of Kaleden.
“We have important valley bottom habitat for many rare or endangered species and much of it has been lost to development, or fragmented by our roadways. I’d like to see more emphasis put into creating and maintaining better wildlife corridors in the valley bottom,” he says.
MacIntosh says it's the first time he's seen the bobcat, which was far more interested in turkeys on his property than it was with him.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Kieran MacIntosh
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