Bobcat sightings unverified, but possible

HARWICH -- Is there a bobcat stalking the Lower Cape?

A photo was posted on the Harwich Old Timers Facebook early this fall, apparently taken at the Bells Neck reservation in Harwich. It is certainly a bobcat.

Back in 2013, a 30-second video was taken of a bobcat in North Falmouth near Teneycke Road.

And a couple of weeks ago, a bobcat was spotted in the vicinity of Route 124 in Brewster.  Before that, it was said to be spotted at the intersection of routes 124 and 137.

“My husband and I saw it. We were visiting my parents on Great Fields Road and were headed home at nine o’clock at night. It was on Tubman Road and it crossed right in front of the car,” Becky Roberts, of Biddeford Maine, recalled. “I was surprised. I texted my dad when we got to where we were staying. It was absolutely a large wild cat. But then I’ve never seen a bobcat up close.”

Most people haven’t. Bobcats are more prevalent in deep woods and western Massachusetts north through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. But they have been moving into the suburbs of Boston inside the 495 belt.

This year they’ve been seen in Danvers, Framingham, Marlborough and last year in Lakeville. They’re generally elusive and are active at night, and have a home range.

But perhaps with memories of the Pamet puma in mind, Mark Faherty, wildlife expert with the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, is skeptical that bobcats are establishing themselves here. The aforementioned puma had more in common with the Loch Ness monster than any factual feline. Faherty also recalled when people reported a mountain lion at the Sanctuary. It turned out it was a golden retriever.

“The example I give is when I was at U. Mass/Amherst there was a roadkill bobcat. I talked with a wildlife biologist and everybody who called it in called it a mountain lion,” Faherty said. “So people who aren’t t trained in wildlife biology can have a hard time telling what they see.”

But it wasn’t long ago the Cape Cod bear was roaming from town to town, and a bear seems less likely than a bobcat to be on Cape Cod. There was also a porcupine that was hit by a car in Eastham a few years ago. But the porcupine and bear were one-off animals that got here somehow -- not as part of a population push.

“Bobcats are moving into southeastern Massachusetts. Wildlife are all creeping west,” Faherty said. “Bobcats are doing the same thing. Fishers reached Cape Cod long ago,” he noted.

Faherty emailed state wildlife biologist Jason Zimmer a copy of the bobcat photo and he said there were no other credible reports at that time.

“As far as anyone knows there are only unverified reports,’ Faherty said, acknowledging the video taken in a Falmouth driveway.

Faherty said that if there is a bobcat in the Harwich/Brewster area it might be a lone individual, like the Cape Cod bear.

“But think about the bear. That animal couldn’t go anywhere without [being  photographed] in every town along the way. It was reported on the way out (to Provincetown) and on the way back. They always knew where the animal was,” Faherty said.

A photo and an independent sighting are evidence. It would be well worth keeping an eye out in the area near the Punkhorn – and keep your pets safely on leash.