The bobcat, a medium-sized wild cat native to North America, often prompts curiosity regarding its behavior, especially its bathroom habits. Like all felines, bobcats utilize feces and urine as a form of communication, a behavior far more complex than simple waste disposal. This reliance on scent marking determines whether the bobcat covers its waste, making the act a deliberate signal to other animals.
The Conditional Nature of Covering Feline Scat
Smaller felines, including the domestic cat, commonly bury waste to hide their presence from predators or dominant rivals. Bobcats, however, exhibit a conditional approach, covering their scat depending on their intent. They may bury feces when they feel secure or are eliminating waste in a non-territorial context, such as away from a primary travel route. This action helps conceal their location and is a remnant of a survival instinct to hide scent. However, bobcat scat is most frequently observed uncovered, indicating the animal’s primary goal was communication rather than concealment.
Uncovered Scat as Territorial Communication
The decision to leave scat exposed transforms the waste into a powerful form of chemical and visual communication. As solitary and territorial animals, bobcats use uncovered feces to establish and maintain their home range boundaries. This exposed scat, rich with pheromones and other chemical markers, acts as a biological bulletin board for other bobcats passing through the area. This scent-marking behavior is typically directed toward rival bobcats, communicating the resident’s presence, size, and reproductive status.
Scat is often strategically placed on prominent features, known as “signposts,” such as elevated mounds of dirt, logs, or stumps. By placing the scat conspicuously, the bobcat ensures the message is both visually and chemically inescapable. A bobcat will sometimes scrape the ground with its hind feet before or after defecating, which emphasizes the location of the signpost. This scraping behavior helps spread the scent around the immediate area, maximizing the territorial signal. The deliberate exposure serves as a clear warning to transient or subordinate bobcats that the area is occupied.
Identifying Bobcat Scat and Latrines
Bobcat scat has distinctive characteristics that differentiate it from the droppings of other predators, such as coyotes or foxes. It is typically tubular and segmented, ranging from a half-inch to one inch in diameter and three to five inches in length. A key visual difference is that bobcat scat often has blunt, rounded ends, unlike the tapered point seen on canine feces. Due to the bobcat’s carnivorous diet, the scat frequently contains visible evidence of undigested fur, bone fragments, or hair.
When multiple pieces of bobcat scat are found clustered together in the same conspicuous location, this area is referred to as a latrine. Latrines are concentrated scent-marking sites that serve as communication hubs within the animal’s territory, indicating a consistent presence.