SCARBOROUGH, Maine — For most of us, the only time you’ll ever see a bobcat is if it’s already in captivity. But in Scarborough, a handful of people have had a close encounter with what is likely a bobcat who showed up in their own yards. The confirmed sightings are about a mile apart. The first sighting is on Ivory Hill Lane; the second in Higgins Beach.
Mark Elliott of Scarborough was the first to spot the big cat, which was a bit unnerving. He says, “That’s where he was laying right there.” Elliott says he and his wife took these pictures of what likely was a bobcat hanging out in their backyard. He says, “He was soaking up the sun. It was pretty good size. His body was about five feet long when he stood up.”
Curt Johnson, park superintendent of the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, says, “The likelihood is that it’s a bobcat in Scarborough.” Johnson says it’s rare to see a bobcat since they’re so elusive. He says, “You don’t really have to exercise a lot of caution with lynx and bobcats. They’re the ones who are cautions of us. And to see one is really a treat.”
Tell that to the woman from Higgins Beach, who snapped a photo of the big cat in her backyard a few days later. She thought it was a mountain lion and is still afraid to let her children play outside. Johnson says, “It could be the same cat that these two different witnesses have seen. As our population grows in southern Maine, there’s going to be more wildlife encounters.”
Mark Elliott says, “We watched him for over an hour. He laid there for over an hour in the sun. Got up and walked off.” But Elliott says he saw the big cat two more times in his yard. He says, “The next morning I was bush-hogging the back field, and he come running by with someone’s kitty.” Curt Johnson says if it was a house cat in its mouth, that would be unusual.
Johnson says bobcats do not attack pets or people, generally speaking. But Elliott told us, “Later in the afternoon, I come out from behind the barn on the tractor and he darted out of the woods at the tractor.” Elliott called the warden, whose advice was if it’s a threat to pets or people, shoot it. But Johnson says in most cases, that bobcat will be long gone in a day or two.