Here are a couple of screenshots from a camera trap video in the Florida Everglades. The camera was positioned extremely well. The cat genuinely looks like a puma/bobcat hybrid. There is no escaping that conclusion. The cat is about the size of a bobcat but has the head and body conformation of a puma and the tail of a bobcat. My thanks to David who commented (see below) and pointed out the video.
And below I continue the discussion. There are two pictures of what some people have described as possible puma/bobcat hybrids. They aren’t, however, on analysis but I am open to other opinions.
A visitor made a comment on the unknown Florida Wildcat page. A neighbor of his/her saw a cat that could have been a puma/bobcat hybrid:
In the Rocky Point subdivision in Stuart, FL. small domestic cats and dogs have gone missing at a high rate. My neighbor sighted a cat bigger than a bobcat yet slightly smaller than a panther with tufted ears. It can clear a standard 4 foot fence without touching…anybody out there think it could be a fl panther, bobcat cross? Ive seen both of those cats in our large preserve.
The first question is whether a puma/bobcat cross is possible and the answer is probably: yes. Although, Sarah Hartwell has not listed the puma/bobcat or puma/lynx hybrid on her site.
I then set about seeing if I could find a picture of one! I came up with this:
This cat was photographed in Georgia, by the way, which is adjacent to, and north of, Florida. I found it on a site about hunting (horrible). One of the hunters thought it could be a puma/bobcat hybrid. The general opinion was that the cat is a large bobcat. However, this cat has little obvious resemblance to a bobcat except for the distinct bobcat tail. The face has puma markings of white fur around the mouth and in the middle the fur appears to have no tabby markings, usually spotted, which is typical of bobcats. The fur looks like the fur of a puma.
The general body conformation is quite lightweight and puma-like except the puma is more muscled especially the hind legs and rump. This cat cannot be a puma but there are some puma-like elements.
What about the ears? They are very slightly lynx tipped as per the classic lynx ears (the bobcat is part the lynx family). That tells me the cat in the picture might be a bobcat.
In addition, the ears in the picture have ocelli on the ear flap – white spots on a dark background. The puma has black fur on the black of its ears and no spots and the ears are small and rounded. The bobcat has ocelli. This confirms the cat is a large bobcat.
Also, there is a small ruff and all-in-all I have come to the conclusion that this cat is a large bobcat with an appearance that is not that typical.
The cat below is not so cut and dried:
This is a very strange looking wild cat. The cat looks larger than a bobcat. There is no tail it seems and the head is more like a cheetah’s and there is no classic bobcat ruff. This cat is not a cheetah because the chest is too small and there is no tail and its legs are too short.
Anyway this cat does not fit nicely into any wild cat species so it could be a hybrid. However, it too is probably a large bobcat. No more and no less.
For comparison here is a bobcat:
Note: On May 7th at around 06:00 I updated this page and republished it with the new date. I did so because of the very interesting additional photo I added at the top of the page.
As a young man hiking with my dog in the San Bernardino mountains I experienced a truly odd sighting that’s been haunting me ever since; sadly, I was not packing a camera. About 300 feet away across a canyon I spied a pair of very strange cats. They appeared to weigh about 60 Lbs. each, had light brown coats with no spots, large rounded ears with no tufts, and tails that appeared to be about 8 inches long. Not shy at all, they were apparently curious and began slowly walking toward us. We retreated back down an irrigation canal, and they did not follow us. An eerie day.
A great sighting and certainly there is a possibility that you saw a hybrid because we know what bobcats and pumas look like. If a cat that is much larger than a domestic cat looks distinctly different to what we know there has to be a possibility that the cat is a hybrid.
It is interesting that no one mentioned the jaguarundi, which is also native to Florida. It is the size of a large housecat, only longer. Jaguarundi can mate with cougars, so they may be able to mate with bobcats. They cannot mate with housecats due to genetic mismatch. The photo from Georgia looks like one except for the tail, but it could be just the view.
Thanks Thomas. I guess you are right. It did not cross my mind.
https://pictures-of-cats.org/category/wild-cats/WIld-Cat-Hybrids-wild-cats
Hybridization depends on the amount of chromosomes in a pair of particular related species. The Mountain lion and the Bobcat both have 38 chromosomes (as do most North American cats,with some South American having less). The hybridization would then be possible if there were a shortage of mates for either species in a particular location (although the Mountain Lion would normally see the smaller cat as prey, not a mate). This is true with Canids as well, Wolves, Coyotes, Domestic dogs, Dingoes, Jackals, etc, can all breed with one another, but not the fox, which has less chromosomes than any of the previously mentioned Canids. Furthermore, it is very possible, and to my trained eye, we have a good amount of photographic evidence here…Thank you
Thanks for contributing so nicely to the discussion – appreciated.
We don’t even know near what we think.
Horses mate with donkeys, and they have different numbers of chromosomes (64 to 62). Their offspring are usually sterile (with 63)…the first mules and hinnies were naturally hybridized, so just because animals have different numbers of chromosomes doesn’t mean that they cannot mate. Also – notice how I said usually. There have been documented cases of both mules and hinnies, male and female, that were not sterile, and that foaled.
Have you seen the pic of the bobcat eating the shark? There’s a big debate on FB on it’s exact id.
Also, I now live in SWestern VA and there’s a very widespread belief in puma/bobcat hybrids, just as there are coywolves. Why do you bring up the possibility of the idea in your prompt, yet deny anyone’s replies towards that point of view?
Hi Caren, thanks for commenting. I am always open to replies and comments. First time comments are moderated but after that they are not. So please write more on this subject 😉 .
Why no more comments?sounds close minded to me.with all the different cat species. They had to come from somewhere.
Thanks for commenting Joshua.
So this is how I ended up here. I just witnessed not 1 but 2 wild cats in northern mexico, the only explanation available until now for what we saw is a cross species hybrids between a Jaguar and a Bobcat, truly amazing and honestly unexplicable. No one could move we were all in shock to see these 2 cats hunting whitetailed deer. Amazing, thank you. Until now we hadn’t even thought of the possibility we were searching for short-tailed jaguars all around, and yes they had those characteristic ears and short tails but their size and fur colors were exactly as a Jaguar. Impressive…
Hi Daniel. Thanks for commenting. There are no authenticated jaguar/bobcat; in fact I don’t recall any sightings or possible sightings of such a hybrid. The puma/bobcat is more acceptable but even that is not authenticated as far as I know. Anyway thanks for dropping by the site.
I have personally seen a “bob lion” as I call it in Arizona, and it was by far the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. I have been hunting for a couple of years and was with two hunters, one who has been hunting in the area for thirty years. We all saw the same thing……. A bit smaller than a puma it had small black/ dark brown spots but just on the legs near the ankles. It also had normal puma ears but with a black twist kind of, like a bobcat. Another thing was the tail, it was a stub unlike a cougar. It freaked me, since we were elk hunting and calling when out of the corner of my eye, I saw it almost crawling through the tan grass straight at me, eventually turning to the herd of elk. We all had time to look through our binoculars an saw it clear as day. It was not a puma or a bobcat.. Could it be both? One of the hunters was a biologist for twenty years, and he said that it was possible for a mix, but only if absolutely necessary (not enough mates). So we asked game and fish, and they said that both populations have spiked downwards. I am a firm believer in the bob lion.
Thanks Garrett for commenting. Very interesting. Probably the world’s most authorative writer about hybrid wild cats is Sarah Hartwell and she says (at around ten years ago) that there are no authenticated hybrids of this type. What she says is that as the bobcat markings are very variable and can be like the puma (vey small spots which are like speckles) at a distance they can be mistaken for a hybrid.
Also sometimes bobcats don’t develop a ruff and this also makes them look more like the puma/bobcat hybrid at a distance. I am not saying it was not a puma/bobcat hybrid but it seems more likely to have been a bobcat with non-standard appearance.
This is a link to her website.
No, bob/puma crossbreeding is not possible.
Thanks Marcel.