Another year has passed at the garden and a new mystery has appeared amongst the shed Silky Oak leaves. While checking for owl pellets under large oak I noticed a bit of bone protruding from the leaf litter. After some digging with a near by stick I was able to uncover a entire bobcat carcass. Bobcats were once fairly common around the garden, but the past couple years have been absent of sightings.
We called UCLA Ph. D student Laurel Serieys to come gather the skeleton for testing and to hopefully gain some insight into the cat’s life. Laurel studies bobcats affected by mange and reports her findings, amongst other Southern California carnivore news, at her site: urbancarnivore.com. She is currently running a series of test on the tissue that could be salvaged. So far, we know it was a larger, male bobcat. We will provide readers an update as soon as we hear more.