What Do Bobcats Eat? Bobcat Diet and Hunting Style

Rabbits and hares: the main menu

Across most of its range, the bobcat depends on rabbits and hares more than any other prey. In the eastern and central United States the main prey is cottontails, especially the eastern cottontail, while in the north and in mountain forests it is the snowshoe hare. Where both occur, as in New England, they are the two most important foods.

Bobcats prefer prey of about 0.7–6 kg (1.5–13 lb), which fits rabbits and hares perfectly. When rabbit numbers fall, bobcats eat a wider range of animals, so the diet of a bobcat depends heavily on what is common nearby.

Rodents, birds and other prey

Rodents are the second big part of the diet. Bobcats eat squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, wood rats, pocket gophers, muskrats and, in the far South, cotton rats, which sometimes replace rabbits as the main food.

Other prey includes:

• Birds: ground birds such as wild turkeys and quail, plus ducks, geese and their eggs and chicks.
• Reptiles: snakes and lizards; in Florida, bobcats have been photographed carrying young alligators.
• Insects: large insects such as grasshoppers, especially for young bobcats.
• Small carnivores: occasionally gray foxes, skunks, raccoons, minks and martens.
• Carrion: bobcats will feed on fresh carcasses, including those of deer.

Do bobcats eat deer?

Yes, sometimes. Deer are not a daily food, but bobcats kill them more often in winter, when small prey is scarce, and in places where deer are abundant. Most deer kills are fawns: in one Everglades study, 33 of 39 bobcat kills of deer were fawns. In Yellowstone, bobcats have been recorded killing elk calves, and in the West they occasionally take pronghorn.

To kill a large animal, a bobcat usually stalks it while it is lying down, then leaps onto it and bites at the neck or throat. Prey several times the bobcat’s own weight can be taken this way, but such kills are the exception.

How bobcats hunt: stalk, wait and pounce

Bobcats are ambush hunters, not long-distance runners. They use two main methods:

1. Sit-and-wait: the bobcat lies or crouches near a rabbit run, rodent burrow or bird feeding area and waits, sometimes for a long time, for prey to come close. Then it pounces and pins the animal with its sharp, retractable claws.
2. Stalking: for larger or more alert prey such as rabbits, hares and geese, the bobcat creeps forward under cover until it is about 6–11 m (20–35 ft) away, then rushes in with a short burst of speed.

Small prey is usually killed with a bite to the back of the neck. Keen eyesight and hearing let bobcats hunt in low light, which is why they are most active around dusk and dawn.

Caching: saving food for later

A bobcat can go for some time without food and then eat heavily when prey is plentiful. When it kills an animal too large to finish at once, such as a deer, it eats its fill and then covers the carcass with leaves, soil or snow. It returns to this cache several times over the following days.

How the bobcat diet changes by region and season

Because bobcats are opportunists, their diet shifts with the local menu:

This flexibility is one reason bobcats are so widespread. The more specialized Canada lynx, by contrast, relies heavily on snowshoe hares, and its numbers rise and fall with the hare population.

Competing with other predators

Bobcats share their prey with many other hunters, including coyotes, red and gray foxes, hawks and owls. In some studies, for example in Maine, bobcats, coyotes and red foxes lived side by side with little sign of direct competition. Elsewhere, bobcat numbers appear to fall where coyotes are very common, possibly because coyotes are more social and can defend food better.

Larger predators can also take food from bobcats. Cougars, wolves and bears sometimes steal kills, and a bobcat will usually give up a carcass rather than fight a much bigger animal. This is one reason bobcats eat quickly and hide what they cannot finish.

Young bobcats learning to hunt

Kittens begin eating meat brought by their mother at around one to two months old. From about three to five months they follow her on hunts, practicing on insects, mice and other easy prey. By their first fall they hunt alone, but many young bobcats die soon after leaving their mother, often because they have not yet mastered stalking larger prey.

Bobcats, pets and livestock

Bobcats occasionally kill poultry, house cats, small dogs and small livestock such as lambs and young goats. These losses are real for some farmers and pet owners, but they are a minor part of bobcat diets overall. At the same time, bobcats eat large numbers of rabbits and rodents, which many landowners value.