Hartford, CT resident Barbara Snyder recently shared this photo of a very chill suburban bobcat who decided to have a little sit-down in her yard. "It was walking between the back of my garage and [my neighbor's] garage about 2 pm yesterday afternoon," Snyder recalls. "Wasn’t too afraid when I came out to photograph it." Snyder says other neighbors have seen the furry feline but this was her first up close and personal sighting. "I can only say that there doesn’t seem to be as many squirrels in the backyard…"
While we found it surprising to see the animal in a suburban setting, wildlife biologist Jason Hawley of the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection told us it's "certainly not uncommon for bobcats to be hanging out right in neighborhoods. Over the last, I’d say 20 years, the bobcat population has really grown in Connecticut," Hawley explained. "It seems like every year I see more and more of them." The bobcat has been a protected "furbear" in the state since the 1970s, which means there are no hunting and trapping seasons and therefore the population has flourished.
Bobcats enjoy lowland, wetland and brushy-type habitats, according to Hawley, where they can find an abundance of small mammals. "That often tends to be a habitat that’s left undeveloped in urban areas because people can’t really build houses in swamps," according to Hawley. "It kind of creates these pockets of actually great bobcat habitats within suburbs and even urban areas.” Birdfeeders, which attract squirrels and chipmunks, as well as house cats also lure the bobcats into those locales.
Just hangin' (Photo courtesy Barbara Snyder)
There's a small woodland area with a trickling river near to Snyder's property, which could be home base for the chill feline, despite the close proximity to downtown Hartford. Snyder also regularly spots red fox, deer and possum on her property, and there have been multiple sightings of coyote in her neighborhood as well, which she says are "definitely on the increase!"
Staten Island had some bobcat activity in addition to those troublesome turkeys; coyotes have been spotted there as well, in addition to Central Park and Queens. If you spy some exotic wildlife in your neighborhood make sure to document it for posterity!
