A while back, I printed a photo of a dead bobcat on Lover’s Lane here in Forney and recounted my previous meeting with one in our “back 2.2 acres” out on Old Military Trail. An earlier mention of bobcats in Forney had brought skepticism from some of my friends, so I wanted to bury any doubt of my veracity!
I have also mentioned that there have been MOUNTAIN LION sightings in our general areas, and this, too, has inspired skepticism. My first “hearing” of mountain lions came compliments of Scoutmaster Jimmy Johnson and from nature experts (Hayden Klaveman and staff) at Summer Camp in the Boy Scout Camp in Pottsboro when I was there in the 1960s.
Thinking and remembering back to my even earlier childhood, I remember seeing one or more mountain lions in the “Texas area” exhibits at Fair Park.
And I am pretty sure that a mountain lion was, at least for a while, mounted and displayed in Madre’s Cocina in Forney.
So, after reading of a confirmed sighting of a “lion” in Rowlett by officers of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and then later reading of a “suspected mauling and death of a 28-year-old man near Lipan, Texas,” by Hood County authorities about 85 miles west of Dallas (confirmed as killed by an animal, possibly a mountain lion), I have again had my interest aroused.
According to various articles, several hundred mountain lion sightings have been reported to authorities during the past 20 or so years, but most have never been completely and definitely confirmed—and some have been actually confirmed as smaller animals, such as bobcats!
Nonetheless, experts say it is wise to keep young children inside or in adult sight whenever there are possible sightings and that it is recommended that non-experts not try to track or hunt these animals!
BOBCATS: Medium-sized carnivores, with males about 24 pounds and females about 17, and lengths from 25 to 35 inches head and body. Bobcats have short “bobbed” tails 5 or 6 inches in length and can be identified by “facial ruffs” and short “ear tufts.” They have long legs and big feet. Fur colors range from gray to reddish-brown with white “undersides.” Their eyesight is excellent!
Bobcats typically have black spots on their undersides with spots on the remainder of their bodies highly variable. They are usually active between dusk and dawn and leave tracks that do not show “claws,” which are retracted inside their paws when they walk. Some as large as 35 pounds have been found, although most are about twice the size of large “house-cats.”
TEXAS MOUNTAIN LIONS: (This description is for mountain lions specific to the Texas areas—not other states, where there are other varieties and sizes.) Also known as “cougars,” the mountain lion is a large, slender cat with a smallish head and noticeably long tail and a light, tawny-brown color, which can appear almost gray or black, depending upon lighting conditions. (No black panthers or mountain lions have ever been shot or captured in Texas.)
Total lengths run from 6.5 feet for females (45 to 96 lbs.) to 8.5 feet for males (100—150 lbs.), and they are solitary animals that are most active mornings, evenings, and nights. They feed primarily on mammals and can be dangerous to domestic livestock up to sizes of near 500 pounds!
According to all I have learned through the years, bobcats are actually in the Forney areas (bottom lands, brush lands, etc.) all the time but are usually not active while most humans are. However, while mountain lions are sometimes actually seen in our Forney and surrounding areas, they are supposedly just “passing through” on their ways to areas farther south and west and are usually the “young— not the mature.”
I have seen both animals up close and consider them beautiful and majestic, but please be careful in the presence of either!
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