Up here in Maine, we’ve got a couple of different kinds of cats — bobcats and Canada lynx — wandering around in our woods, and it’s quite common to see one or the other. Some swear we’ve got mountain lions here, too, but that’s a topic for another day.
Down in Heiberger, Alabama, Bangor Daily News reader Rusty Fondren has stumbled upon another kind of cat, and he’d like your help identifying it.
“We have lots of bobcats, just not sure [this is one] due to length of tail and stripes instead of spots,” Fondren said.
While I’m no cat expert, I’m confident in agreeing with Fondren’s assessment: The long tail would clearly rule it out as a bobcat.
But what is it?
Unfortunately, there’s not much in the photo to give any kind of size perspective, so this critter could be as small as a house cat or as big as a cougar, and we’d have no real way of telling. The barrel in the background gives a bit of a clue, but we don’t know how far it is from the cat in the foreground to the barrel, which would make a huge difference.
To me, the cat looks like the Savannah cat, a hybrid cross between a serval and a house cat that some people own. Or, it could be another hybrid that is essentially a large, exotic house cat with some interesting blood lines.
Or it might be something else entirely.
Tell us: What do you think?
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Do you have a trail camera photo or video to share? Send it to jholyoke@bangordailynews.com and tell us “I consent to the BDN using my photo.” In order to prevent neighbors from stopping by to try to tag particularly large bucks, moose or bears, some identities and towns of origin may be omitted.