According to a number of posts on the social media page “What’s Happening Healdsburg” by several Fitch Mountain residents and neighbors, there have been several recent bobcat and mountain lion sightings throughout the area.
The first recent sighting was of a few mountain lions seen around Fitch Mountain, West Side Road and Felt Road around July 31. Then, on Aug. 2, a South Fitch Mountain resident posted a video to the page of a young bobcat sauntering around their front yard. Later that week on Aug. 7, another Fitch resident posted about a bobcat sighting, saying that they saw the animal “chillin’ on the deck.”
While all of these sightings have been benign, it prompted neighbors to remind each other to be careful, especially with pets.
The Tribune spoke with mountain lion researcher and ecologist Quinton Martins, who works with the Audubon Canyon Ranch animal conservation and research organization, to discuss the behavior of these cats and the risk of coming across them from time to time.
How to recognize a bobcat or a mountain lion
“People do get them confused sometimes, but they (bobcats) are quite different animals,” Martins said. “Bobcats are a lot smaller than mountain lions. Typically, mountain lion females in our region weigh about 85 pounds and males are between 120 and 150 pounds.” B
Bobcats are significantly smaller and are in the 20- to 40-pound range. One of the most striking features of a mountain lion that distinguishes it from a bobcat is its long, sweeping tail.
“Often sightings are brief, or you only get a glimpse of something, but one of the things that you notice with a mountain lion is its long tail which sort of sweeps behind it. It’s something that you would notice quite easily, whereas bobcats have really short, stumpy tails that are only a few inches,” Martins said.
He said mountain lion tails can be as long as 25 to 30 inches.
Cats like to keep to themselves
Much like house cats, big cats like mountain lions and bobcats generally like to keep to themselves and won’t go looking for a fight unless they are triggered to defend themselves in a life or death situation.
Martins said he would go so far as to say that bobcats might be a bit more on the aggressive side than mountain lions, however, he pointed out that cats will generally keep to themselves and don’t often go looking for a fight, especially with one that would involve humans.
“You shouldn’t have to worry about your personal safety at all really, but you don’t want to tussle with an angry cat, even an angry house cat,” Martins said. “But they are not going to get into a fight that’s going to put their safety at risk because if they get hurt, they are not going to be able to hunt.”
In short, bobcats and mountains are not known to be a real threat to people and mountain lion attacks are very rare according to Martins.
“Both mountain lions and bobcats are not known to be a real threat to people and very few get attacked by mountain lions and even though it is possible, it’s not something that they seem to want to do very often and bobcats are the same,” Martins said.
Nevertheless, bobcats are capable predators, and even though they prey on smaller things like jack rabbits or small rodents, they can quite easily take down young deer or small sheep, according to Martins. They could also kill a small dog or house cat.
Mountain lions are also extremely capable predators and often prey on deer. Martins said in their study area of Sonoma County, he and other researchers have found that lions have and can kill house pets.
“It’s almost like a fast-food snack for them,” he said.
Martins added that researchers have documented mountain lion activity around Fitch Mountain. He said normally bobcats and coyotes avoid the area where mountain lions are since mountain lions have such large territories, yet sometimes, you do still see an overlap of animals. Mountain lions can have a territory range of 40 to 150 square miles, whereas a bobcat may have a smaller range at only five square miles.
Protecting pets and small livestock
Martins urged pet owners to keep their animals in at night, especially their cats.
“People should keep their cats indoors or within a catio (think an enclosed outdoor patio but for cats) all the time. There are somewhere in the region of about 4 million cats in the U.S. and they kill an extraordinary high number of indigenous animal species that are not used to cats being around so cats should really be kept indoors, especially at night when a cat is likely to get killed by a bobcat, coyote or a mountain lion,” he said.
Martins emphasized that in Sonoma County people may live in rural areas that are often also the home of local wildlife and should pay them the respect and reverence they deserve.
“There are so many people living in areas where there is wildlife habitat. It is important not to create unnatural food sources for these animals by leaving pets unprotected or leaving food out in your home area. You end up attracting other things that may end up being food for bobcats and lions and then you’re attracting them into your space,” he said, noting that that’s an important aspect to realize when you live around wildlife.
Even if you have a yard or animals protected by a fence, mountain lions can easily jump over a 12 foot fence and according to Martins, the type of enclosures that’s more effective in keeping unwanted cats out, is one that is fully enclosed like a barn or a shed.
“It needs to have a roof and it can’t have any gaps that a bobcat or a mountain lion could sneak into,” he said.
Martins said it’s also good to put up a non-see-through material at least six feet up an enclosure or a shed so a lion or bobcat cannot see inside. He said they’ve found if a cat cannot see through something it may be less inclined to get in, whereas an animal like a bear will be motivated to get past a barrier to reach food.
“They don’t seem to try and get into something where they can’t see into. If they can see what’s on the other side then they may take a chance, but if they can’t see in then they’re not really keen on going there,” he said. “An important message to get out there to people, is whatever you have, it is absolutely your responsibility to keep those animals safe. They can’t keep themselves safe.”
He added that killing any of the predatory wild animals — birds of prey, snakes, bobcats, mountain lions and coyotes — in response to them getting at pets is not solving the issue.
“It’s not solving the situation; you are just going to have this repeated thing happen over and over again until you sort out your situation and it’s very doable.”
He said if a cat has been visiting your yard and you are experiencing a mountain lion/livestock conflict you can contact him, and the team and they can try to tag the animal and watch its moves. He said the data would be valuable to their research.
Martins said if you encounter a mountain lion on a hiking trail or in another scenario the best thing to do is to act big, be loud and to tell it off. You should never turn your back and run in a situation like that as it will trigger the cat’s instinct to chase you.
To contact Martins about a cat/livestock concern, call 707-721-6560 or email him at qu*************@eg***.org.
You can check out his research and work with mountain lions on the Audubon Canyon website here: https://www.egret.org/living-with-lions.
