Photos courtesy of Educator Carl Heitmuller
A deceased young buck (male deer) was found on one of the trails of the Outdoor Discovery Center, unable to survive this year’s harsh winter. So out of curiosity, Educator Carl set up his trail camera near the deer and captured images of a cottontail rabbit, red fox, and our resident Bobcat!
While the rabbit was likely just passing through, Red foxes are scavengers and will naturally gravitate toward carcasses to fulfill their nutritional needs. Foxes do not prefer to engage in combat for their carcass, and will instead wait their turn nearby a carcass for the other animals to finish eating.
Bobcats are efficient carnivores and mostly nocturnal, or active at night. They feed primarily on small mammals such as mice and voles, rabbits, squirrels and woodchucks. However, as opportunistic predators, they sometimes feed on carrion (decaying meat) and may on occasion even take larger animals like deer. Bobcats are very stealthy hunters that move through the forest silently and can remain motionless for long periods of time while stalking their prey. One interesting behavior is that they will cache their food, covering it with dirt, leaves, sticks or even snow to hide it from other scavengers so they may return for another meal at a later time.
