Christina is currently a 6th grader in Forest Park Elementary School in Crystal Falls, Michigan. She lives out in the country in a fairly large house with her family which includes her father, mother, older brother and older sister. She has brown longish hair and hazel eyes. She has peach skin and wears glasses sometimes when she needs them. She has an English Settler female dog named Mindy. She also has a fish named Mr. Pike. Twelve hears old is her age. Christina has many hobbies and interests which include swimming, cross-country and downhill skiing, rollerblading, biking, collecting things, track, and many more. Some of her favorite foods are cherry pie and cheese burgers. Her favorite subjects in school are spelling, reading, and science. She is a honor roll student and studies very hard. She plans on going to the University of Michigan and studying either to be a teacher or a nurse. Christina likes alternative and pop music. She plays the piano, clarinet and flute. She has been to very many places in the United States and Canada. She absolutely loves to travel. Her dream vacations include London, China, Australia, Europe, Hawaii, the Philippine Islands, Switzerland, Sweden, and Africa.

Physical Description: The bobcat is the smallest of our wild cats and is 2-3 times larger than a typical house cat. A bobcat is a mammal in the cat family. The bobcat's colors vary from tan to reddish-brown and it has dark spots and blotches along the back and white underneath. The bobcat has long hairs on it's face which resemble sideburns. This mammal has long legs, a short tail, and pointed ears tipped with short hairs. The spotted coat provides this hunter with excellent camouflage. The height of a bobcat is 20-22 in. [51-56cm], females are slightly smaller than males. The weight for a male is 24 lbs. [10 kilograms] and for a female 16 lbs. [7 kilograms]. The females are shorter then the males. The length of a bobcat is 30-43in. [750-1,100 mm], their tail length is 5.1-7.1 in. [130-180 mm], their hind foot length is 6.3-7.7 in. [160-195 mm], and their ear height is 2.4-3.3 in. [60-85 mm]. A bobcat's stride is 30-40 in. and their straddle is 3 1/4in. Their tracks are more rounded than that of the coyote or dog and shows no claw marks. The front foot tends to spread the toes more than the hind foot when the animal is speeding.

Diet: Do you have any idea how many different animals a bobcat has in their diet? The bobcat eats most small mammals that are present in our Northern forests which include shrews, voles, mice, jumping mice, bog lemmings, squirrels, opossums, and sometimes porcupines. This cat easily feasts on deer carcasses, and it sometimes preys on sick or young deer as well. An occasional frog, snake, or bird adds variety to a diet dominated by mammals. Many farmers and ranchers dislike bobcats because they sometimes prey on chickens, sheep, and other livestock. Bobcats are carnivores [a meat eater].

Habitat: Did you know that except for a nursing mother, the bobcat changes resting spots almost daily, retreating under a rocky ledge, beneath tangled brush, in small caves, or into a tree cavity? The dens of a bobcat may be in a number of places, which vary with the character of the country. This cat's preferred habitat is large areas of hardwood forest, or in the
mountains but is also lives in coniferous and mixed deciduous/coniferous woods. It often occupies wooded swamps and stays in areas close to humans, which means they are often found on the edges of towns.

Behavior:Do you know some facts about the behavior of a bobcat? There are several of them, and so to start out, a bobcat is a loner. A loner is an animal that doesn't live by other animals of its kind, which means plainly that a bobcat is not social. A bobcat is simply a large pussy cat, with the growls, yowlings, and hissing and spitting we are familiar with as in a
house cat [domestic]. A bobcat is seldom seen since they are nocturnal. It marks its territory with urine and feces [scat]. Scratching posts trees scarred by this wild cat while sharpening its claws also mark the animal's home. There is a tendency for bobcats to cover their feces when they are on a hunting trail and leave them exposed near their dens. Bobcat scat can be confused with those of coyotes and dogs. Scent markings, urine, feces, and scratching are used to maintain their social structure. The cat covers the prey that they kill with branches [cached]. The bobcats prefer to walk near trees and shrubs for safeness and coverage.

As you already know, bobcats are solitary and they mostly are nocturnal. Bobcats have very keen sight and hearing. They are good climbers and they also can swim. Bobcats are very adaptable and their behavior is similar to that of house cats. Bobcats will play with feathers and even blades of grass. Some people trap bobcats for their pelts which are used to trim
coats and other clothing. However, the trapping of bobcats endangers their survival and is opposed by some wildlife conservation groups.

Do you know how many kittens a litter may contain? It contains 1-4 kittens that are born in May after a gestation of about 60-65 days. Bobcats mate in late winter or early spring. A bobcat begins life with a full set of claws, closed eyes, and a woolly coat of spotted fur. A newborn kitten weighs about 11oz. [325 g]; it is the size of a small gray squirrel, and is about
10in. [250 mm] long. Right after birth a kitten nurses while the mother licks it repeatedly, cleaning and drying the fur. The mother bobcat eventually eats the placenta and the umbilical cord and stays with the newborn for two days before leaving to hunt. A bobcat, just like any human, has a belly button. It is rarely visible because it is usually covered by hair. It has a belly button because it is a mammal just like us. Growth for a bobcat kitten is not very fast, and well-fed kittens gain only about 0.4 oz. [10 g] a day. Their eyes open by day ten. After one month a kitten begins nibbling meat brought by the mother, but weaning[from drinking its mother's milk] is a slow process that is not complete for another month. The mother supervises the kittens until midwinter, when she drives them off and prepares to mate again. Most bobcats breed at the end of their second year. If an adult looses her litter early in the season, she comes into heat again and gives birth a late a September.

Do you have any idea on how far the bobcats home range varies? The home range of a bobcat varies from 5 to 40 my.sq. [10 to 100km sq. and a single bobcat covers as much as 7 mi. [12 km] in its nightly search for food.

Potential Predators: Do you think there are any enemies of a bobcat? An adult bobcat is safe from enemy usually, but of coarse humans are one predator. Bobcat kittens occasionally are killed by foxes, coyotes, or large owls. Wild bobcats live up to 12 years, and those in captivity, up to 32 years.

I hope you have learned and enjoyed many interesting, fun-filled facts from this report on bobcats!

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