Bobcat Scent Marking
A bobcat revisiting a site where it had found a beaver carcass several days prior. It scent marked this area at least twice, and you can see that in the video at the end of this post.
The bobcat (Lynx rufus) uses urine and scat to mark important places within its home range. Like house cats, bobcats sometimes spray urine back onto vertical surfaces, such as stumps, trees, and stones. The animal might spray quickly and casually, barely pausing as it walks along. Or, more ceremoniously, a bobcat might stop and scrape with its hind feet, prior to urinating or defecating. Sometimes scraping is sufficient to create a mound of debris upon which excretions are left. But if scraping is quick and subtle, or if the substrate is unsuitable, no discernible evidence is left, other than the excretion.
Tracks suggest that a bobcat paused to spray urine on the stump. A quick sniff of the stump told me that that had indeed happened.
The video below shows 4 instances of bobcat scent marking:
- Spraying without scraping – A bobcat pauses briefly at a small hemlock tree while walking by. You can see the tail stand straight up and wag slightly from side to side during the pause. That is when the cat is spritzing urine. After spraying, the animal proceeds to cross the pond via a beaver dam at the far left of the frame. My trail camera has captured a bobcat crossing there quite frequently, so I believe this is a well used corridor, lending support to the idea that bobcats spray important locations within their home ranges.
- Spraying after scraping – A bobcat returns to the site of a road killed beaver. After finding and consuming this bonanza, the bobcat returned periodically for a couple of weeks, as if hoping to find another carcass. In this clip, we see the cat pause and scrape with hind feet. It’s hard to see because it happens when the animal is facing directly towards the camera, so watch carefully. Most likely, the cat squirted a bit of urine just after scraping.
- Spraying after scraping -The 3rd clip shows another return to the site of roadkill, and this time it’s easier to see the cat scraping. However, the video (set to record 15 second clips), ends prior to completion of the act, so we can’t see whether the bobcat leaves urine or scat. Since I found no scat at the site, I think the cat probably left urine instead.
- Scatting after scraping – A bobcat visits a ridge top near many caves and crevices. Such areas are often used by bobcats for raising young, and in the past, my camera has captured a bobcat with her kitten at this site. Also, bobcat scats appear on this ridge top from time to time, and in this clip, you can see a bobcat – just its hind end – actually leaving scat, after scraping with hind feet, just as it sometimes does prior to urination.
Video — Bobcat Scent Marking
great site
Thanks
Do males and females scent the same way — or is it only males who mark territory, as in your above videos?
Good question. I have come across experienced trackers who think only males do, but others say they’ve observed females spraying and scraping. I personally am fairly certain that one bobcat I got scraping on video was a female. I think the consensus now is that adults of both sexes scent mark by spraying and scraping (and also by rubbing their cheeks on objects) but males may mark more often than females. Juveniles generally don’t.
Thanks, Janet. We live on 45 acres and have lots of trail cams set up — we definitely have two males and one female (who brought two kittens around last year). Always curious who is doing what. And, as luck would have it, one of the males was captured on video yesterday – coming right up to the cam – then doing the exact squatting you observed, once he walked up the hill.
WOW you got to see bobcat kittens on your own property! How incredibly cool.
Yes, a special, special treat! She brought them to the water bowl many times!
I have a video of a female bobcat spraying a palm tree in my backyard. I am certain she is female because I have good video of her back end.
Thanks! Yeah I think it’s pretty well known now that both sexes spray. Females may do so less often, leading some people to believe they don’t spray at all.
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We just moved to the local mountains to Idyllwild. Folks have often spotted bobcats here as well as deer. My bottom floor sliding glass got sprayed last week, much higher on the glass than a house cat could reach. And none of the neighbors have outdoor cats. Could it have been from a bobcat?
Hi Angela, I see no reason why it couldn’t be a bobcat. I’d set up a trail camera to see if it’s revisited. Bobcats sometimes do return to scent posts, to sniff and/or freshen them.
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