We Finally Captured an Image
Of a Bobcat…and…Feral Hogs
May Be Getting More Abundant
The luck of the Irish prevailed at Wildflower Preserve on St. Patrick’s Day, which is when we captured our first bonafide bobcat image. Only one image. Only a partial body. But a bobcat nonetheless.
Furthermore, the cat was photographed at the same location as our mystery animal back in February. That fuzzy image generated good conversation, guessing, and evaluation. Maybe now we can say that it was a bobcat then, although only one image (at night) was captured at that time, too.
Bobcat at Lemon Creek Wildflower Preserve
Bobcat at Lemon Creek Wildflower Preserve
This time our bobcat was captured in the afternoon, 4:54 to be precise. How come only one image? Maybe it walked through quickly but paused at the left edge of our frame. Maybe it came from behind the camera and then turned left. In any case, notice the short tail, long legs, and distinctive markings. The second image here was cropped and edited to show the cat a little more clearly.
And The Hogs Keep Coming
There’s nothing lucky about this news.
We’ve been seeing a hog on numerous occasions on one of our cameras. It was hard to say if it was the same hog or different ones, but they were loners until recently.
Changing the camera to video mode and paid off with a 15-second track of three hogs, one large, the others apparently medium size. The video was take during the night when it rained, so it’s not very clear. Other videos showed just one large hog – the same one each time. This animal has a distinctive mark, which can be seen in the video as the hog moves through the frame. I have not included the videos here because I’ve had trouble loading them on this platform.
Feral Hog at Lemon Creek Wildflower Preserve, photo taken in March 2026
The photo here shows a hog that showed up on a different camera, at a different site, for the first time. Several images have been captured of a single hog at this location recently.
Preserve manager Chad Lyman has been in contact with a wildlife control agent, and there may be some effort to remove these animals before they become a bigger problem.
Photos copyright © Lemon Bay Conservancy and Ken Schultz