Trail cam pics 2006

[MIKE IN lINO III]

Nice Buck, You can hunt over bait in Mi?

[bigbucks]

I believe that's a wood pile in the background not a bait pile...

[tealitup]

Maybe that is why it was deleted

[perchking]

No it was deleted because I have a better one I need to show plus yes it is leagal to hunt over bait in Michigan.

[Cooter]

Awesome deer FF!! Was that a field of brassicas he was in on the first pic? Congrats.

[perchking]

No actually it is corn, I donate my land for the Early Season youth hunt in Gogebic County which ran last weekend. I have 6 different stands set up over 100 acres and the CO runs classes on proper baiting and stand placements.

but yes you can bait in Michigan and you can also hunt over it.

[Froggy4371]

Now that is a true deer in headlights picture. Look at the jaw sticking open!

Froggy

[tealitup]

Hey Perchking great deer - I was joking around - sorry if that offended you. From your other posts we all know you are an ethical hunter.

[Mark Christianson]

Heres a couple cool ones from Sorgy

[Sorgy]

Thanks Biglakeba$$ for the help in posting the pics. Hopefully We will see an even bigger moose durring our hunt. This guy is one of 2 that showed up. He will get a pass if he comes on by I think This is a great thread you started.

Steve

[Dock Boy]

Sorgy how did you get your moose to come into your camera setup?

[Sorgy]

I think my buddy put the camera on a tree near a trail that my dad heard a bull grunt a few days earlier. It was pure luck and maybee an omen The first pic I believe shows leaves covering the ground. There is a pic of a bull pawing the ground and one with a smaller bull bedded in it. The better question is why did the moose choose to make a wallow there.

I may spend a few mornings looking over that wallow with my bow. Otherwise I will be using a rifle.

You can see more by reading my post on the moose rut.

[Esoxmn]

This one came in last nite. Now i just need him to show up durring daylight.

[ddp]

Hey Gary,

Looks like an older deer.

Do you know Tom Waseleski from pengilly?

[xedge2002]

See if this works, its my first try on posting.

These pics are taken with a Cabela's Moultrie 4.1MP camera if anybody is wondering.

[Mark Christianson]

Pics from Swampscooter.

He was wondering if its a bobcat or a young mountain lion.

I would say definitely a bobcat with the coloration. And the tail I gotta believe isnt hiding on the other side if it were a young lion.

[perchking]

I would say that is a trophy bobcat...

[Swamp Scooter]

This is the same stand BLB posted Tubby standing by. The really big black bear. My guess is that it is at least 20+" tall.

Is there an open season on them with my bow?

[ChuckN]

I've seen a mountain lion in person (specifically the back half of it's body) and their tail's are long.

I'd say that is one heck of a bobcat, WOW! Big one at that.

[Code-Man]

I'm 99% sure it's a bobcat. Look at the ears on it. Short stubby tail all signs of a big bobby cat.

[OUTDOORNUT]

Looks pretty big for a Bobcat, hard to tell though. The second pic sure looks like a Lion head formation though, but there is some mix in the fur color (around the legs and belly), so I dought a young Lion.

Maybe a Lynx??

[tjm]

My votes a young lion that lost his tail.Detailed muscle and bone structure makes me think that it's not a bobcat.Def not a lynx paws are way to small.Face looks more like a young lion too.Young lions do have spots

If that is a bobcat thats 1 heck of a kitty.

[HunterLee]

Its a bobcat. Two bad you couldnt get a good look at his ears, that would tell you for sure.

[USPENAMC]

ITS BOTH...man maybe i should have waited till TJM posted some sort of hunt for someone who came up with the answer....darn it.. he he

DNA Tests Confirm Hybridization of Canada Lynx with Bobcats in Maine first confirmed in minnesota

Research scientists have verified evidence of hybridization between wild Canada lynx and bobcats in Maine through DNA analysis. Hair and tissue samples collected by wildlife biologists from two cats were tested at the U.S.D.A. Forest Service's genetics laboratory in Missoula, Mont., confirming that the animals - one male and one female - were lynx-bobcat hybrids. The DNA tests further revealed that each was the offspring of a female lynx and a male bobcat.

"We suspected that these two cats were hybrids," said Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Jennifer Vashon. "While they more closely resembled bobcats, each had physical features consistent with lynx such as long ear tufts or an almost completely black-tipped tail."

Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), USFWS Photo

The Canada lynx is protected by the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species in 14 of the lower 48 states, the southern part of its historic range. Hybrid lynx-bobcats, however, are not protected by the federal law.

Wildlife biologists with the Maine D.I.F.W. and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have jointly studied Canada lynx in northwestern Maine for the past five years to learn more about the status of the population in the state.

"The DNA evidence in large part indicates that lynx and bobcat populations in Maine remain genetically separate," said Service biologist Dr. John Organ. "We can't predict at this time what, if any, long term effects hybridization will have on the lynx population. In the meantime, we'll continue studying lynx as part of our ongoing efforts to conserve the species in the Northeast."

"In addition to identifying the hybrids we ran DNA tests on samples from another 29 individual lynx from Maine and found no further evidence of hybridization," said Dr. Michael Schwartz, the U.S.D.A. Forest Service wildlife ecologist who heads the genetics laboratory where the hybrid test was designed. "It should be noted, however, that hybrids are just as likely to be classified as bobcats and we have not examined many bobcat samples from Maine."

"We were not surprised that the 29 lynx samples from our northern Maine study area were determined to be pure lynx as there are few bobcats in that portion of the state," said Vashon. "However, the locations where the two hybrids were found are in the region where both lynx and bobcat occur in Maine, and I expect the likelihood of hybridization would be greater."

The male lynx-bobcat hybrid was trapped in 1998. The trapper, concerned that the animal could be a lynx, contacted Maine wildlife officials to evaluate the animal. The animal was radio-collared and released. It died several months later apparently of starvation.

A graduate student from the University of Maine conducting research in the fall of 2002 first located the female hybrid, which was held in a trap. She observed one kitten in a nearby tree and two kittens walking near the trapped cat. Department biologists examined the animal, and, suspecting that it was a lynx-bobcat hybrid, collected samples for DNA analysis.

"Now that we have proof that the female was a lynx-bobcat mix, the presence of kittens indicates that the hybrid animals can reproduce," said Organ. He explained that the offspring of hybrids of other mammals, such as wolf-dog or donkey-horse hybrids, can be either sterile or fertile.

Canada lynx-bobcat hybrids were first scientifically documented earlier this year in Minnesota, when researchers at the U.S.D.A. Forest Service genetics laboratory in Missoula confirmed through DNA analysis that samples from two cats exhibiting characteristics of both species, and a hair sample sent in from a third, were from lynx-bobcat hybrids. It could not be determined at that time if the hybrids could reproduce.

Service and Maine D.I.F.W. wildlife biologists first confirmed the presence of a resident population of Canada lynx in Maine in June 1999 when they found a den with two kittens. To date, they have studied 23 litters totaling 63 kittens, and have captured and marked 93 lynx, including 32 radio-collared adult and sub-adult animals and 61 kittens.

The biologists this spring documented six dens containing nearly double the number of kittens found in previous years. Four of the litters, each numbering five kittens, were the largest the biologists have found in the state.

Bobcat (), USFWS Photo

The ranges of lynx and bobcats overlap in Maine. Unlike the bobcat, lynx are highly adapted to live in areas where there is deep snow, isolating the two species in the winter. While they are closely related, the two species are genetically distinct.

Canada lynx are medium-sized wild cats that live in the extreme northern forests of North America. Canada lynx have large paws that function like snowshoes, allowing them to hunt in deep snow. The cats feed primarily on snowshoe hare and other small mammals and birds.

The lynx's range extends from Alaska, throughout much of Canada, to the southern boreal and transitional forests in the northeastern United States, the Great Lakes, the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Mountains. With the exception of Maine, it is believed that lynx populations have been extirpated in the northeast.

Bobcats are also medium-sized wildcats whose range extends throughout most of the lower-48 states and into southern Canada. They do not occur in Alaska. Bobcats are similar in appearance to lynx, but their feet and ear tufts are noticeably smaller, and their tail is whitish below and at the tip, with a black band around the tip. Lynx have no white markings on the tip of their tail. Bobcats are generally more reddish in color than lynx, and may have more distinctive dark spotting on their fur. Bobcats feed on a variety of rabbit species, rodents, other mammals, and birds. While lynx feed primarily on snowshoe hare and will prey on other species when hares are not abundant, bobcats feed on a broader array of prey species.

###

Dr. John Organ, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 413/253-8501

Jennifer Vashon, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 207/941-4238

Dr. Michael Schwartz, U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 406/542-4161

[OUTDOORNUT]

It would make for some awesome fur either way!

O.k. so IF I'm trapping Bobcat and I catch a "Hybrid" do I get to keep it, skin it, strech it and sell it as a Bobcat? Or do I have to turn in this animal to the DNR as an acidental Lynx catch? Or do I get to keep it and sell it as a Hybrid Lynx, being as the Lynx would fetch more money than a Bobcat?