Intense Florida encounter between bobcat and deer caught on video
The bobcat crouches down and the deer enters the frame. A wildlife expert said that bobcats usually go for smaller prey.
Caught on camera: Bobcat, deer encounter in Florida
A trail camera caught this fight for life in Florida between a deer and a bobcat. A wildlife expert said that bobcats don't normally hunt animals that large.
FLAGLER BEACH, Fla. - A Florida homeowner's trail camera captured an intense, yet swift, moment between a bobcat and a deer, and it's one of the best videos you'll see this week.
It begins with the bobcat getting itself as close to the ground as possible, ready to stalk its would-be prey. Then, seconds later, a deer pops up into the frame. The bobcat pounces and the deer headbutts it in return.
"To see [the bobcat] pounce at that deer and the reaction and get it all caught on camera was pretty wild," Matt Hathaway said Tuesday. "It's two seconds. It's instant fast."
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He owns the trail camera that captured the wild encounter he'd never witnessed.
"We've got a lot of wildlife video over the years, but nothing like that," he said. "I don't think this bobcat is going to try to attack a deer. And sure enough, he did."
According to Gatorland's animal care director, Danielle Lucas, these encounters happen more often than we think.
"[Bobcats] typically go for birds, rabbits, rats, things like that. But if the opportunity presents itself, it generally would be a younger deer. But that looked to be probably about a 120-pound female deer," she said.
This explains the bobcat's reaction.
The bobcat leaps for the deer's neck and the deer tries to headbutt.
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"Mid-jump, he was like, 'Oh, whoa. That's way bigger than I thought it was,'" Lucas said.
The video shows the two animals going their separate ways into the night. But had the bobcat put in a little more effort, it would likely have been feasting for days.
"That would probably last him quite some time. He'd probably eat what he wanted. Maybe she. If it was a girl, maybe she had cubs or kittens somewhere and cashed the rest and maybe came back later and feasted on it for the rest of the week," Lucas said.