Cougar?

[Bigsmitty]

Its a cougar.

[ETH310]

Cougar without a doubt.

[hockeybc69]

Can someone explain the black blotches on the inside of the right front leg?

I am 99% convinced its a big old male bobcat.

And zooming on the pic, it sure looks like its got those tufts of fur off the lower jowel area.

[walleyeguy7]

the only thing that gets me is the light coat, the pronounced area around the eye, and the way the rear leg looks. To me that leg looks to thick like its tail maybe slightly down, making its leg look like that. If I had to guess Id say cougar.

[certified jumbo]

1000% bobcat. without a doubt

[psepuncher]

I see tufts below the jaw, no tail and splotches.

But then again the gait says something totally different. For the lions gate, as the legs are moving in stride, the rear foot always steps on the front. Guessing front foot has planted and the rear foot is moving into place. Looking back at the actual bobcat photo, the gait is totally different. Rear foot always steps over the front

[PurpleFloyd]

House cat

[DTro]

I vote Bobcat

[swamptiger]

Could be a lynx.

[pikerliker]

Could be a lynx.

+1

[Scott K]

Not to much resemblance

[basssmasher*]

my gut instinct tells me cougar.

[hockeybc69]

I emailed the DNR and here is the response:

Looks like a bobcat, body length is too short for a cougar.

[CANOPY SAM]

Again, I'm going with Bobcat on this one. In almost every true cougar pic you can see the last 1/3 - 1/2 of it's tail trailing quite far back from it's hind legs. A cougars tail is huge, and there's no tail behind this cat at all.

Cougars are most definitely around though. Last night, in the 10 o'clock news report out of the Red River Valley (Fargo/Grand Forks), there was a confirmed cougar sighting, including a very clear trail cam pic of a cougar, I believe it was from around the Crookston area? Can't recall the name of the town, but it's not far from here (TRF).

Gotta believe this one is a Bobcat though. Pretty cool seeing it walk thru the yard in the middle of the day!

[CANOPY SAM]

The sighting, and pics for evidence, were from Kindred, MN.

[CANOPY SAM]

Whoops. Kindred, ND. A few miles southwest of Fargo? My bad...

[huntnfish]

Actually, I think the pics were from a trail camera in Ottertail County. They said the one in Kindred was in town and within a few blocks of the school but they had no pictures of it. Sounded like it was a close encounter and the cat didn't run off like you'd expect.

[ETH310]

Either that thing has too long of a tail for a bobcat or elphantitis of the rear left leg.