Trail cameras allow us to capture wildlife activity when we’re not there — documenting when animals travel through an area and how often they do so. Sometimes they also reveal rare glimpses of behavior and interactions between species.
That was the case for Nathan Lozier, who placed a trail camera at a bait site on his family’s Down East blueberry property.
Baits attract a variety of birds and mammals. In this case, the camera captured a fight between a bald eagle and a bobcat, both drawn by deer scraps and roadkill.
The bobcat is feisty, like most bobcats I’ve encountered, and secures the meal by jumping on the bird and forcing it to retreat.
Lozier said he sees bobcats at the site often, sometimes every day, but he hasn’t seen anything like this before.
“This is the craziest trail camera video I have ever gotten,” he said.
I’ve seen similar behavior from bobcats around food sources. While working as a wildlife technician out west, I would drag deer carcasses onto mesa rims and along travel corridors. They were tied and left as bait for mountain lions, which would eventually lead to their capture.
While walking out to check whether one of the carcasses had been fed on, I spotted a bobcat. It sat there watching me, growling, as I noticed the deer behind it covered with brush. Cats often do this to hide a carcass from other scavengers.
The bobcat remained as I approached. I watched it urinate on the deer, marking the food it had claimed. It never did leave.
These are common behaviors for bobcats, but it’s especially exciting to see them in person or capture a similar interaction on a trail camera because it shows just how capable and tenacious they are.