Been On Vacation

Sorry, folks.

I've been on vacation since Thursday. I was in Yosemite National Park.

This is a photo of Upper Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park. This fall was dry this year at the end of September, but it was going like gangbusters when I was there in June. The trail up to the top of the falls is pretty grueling.

It was pretty fun up there.

I believe this is a photo of Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite National Park. Last week at the end of September, all of the falls were dry.

I was up there in June and I went up the old road from Happy Isles to Yosemite Valley's water supply near where Illouette Creek meets the Merced River.

The famous Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, one of the world's most famous natural wonders. If you are ever in California, you might want to stop by and visit this national park for a once in a lifetime experience. I lived here for a while in August 1977. I lived in a place called, "Ozone", which was more or less a 24 hour marijuana smoking party. This camp was wiped out in the floods in 1996.

On the way back to the water supply after crossing the Illouette Creek bridge and I saw a large cat.

At first I thought it was someone's house cat loose in the park, but it was way too big. Then I thought it was a mountain lion. Then I figured out it had to be a bobcat. bobcats can look pretty large from a distance.

This is what the bobcat looked like at first from a distance. You can see how they get confused with mountain lions.

It moved behind the building next to the water supply and I quickly ran up to the building and hid alongside of it. I peeked around the corner and the bobcat was on the other side. It was moving towards my side of the building, so I hid alongside and waited for it to come around. Finally, it meandered to my side of the building and after a few steps, it looked up and saw me frozen along the building.

It made a growling motion with its mouth that seemed almost half-fake, and then it turned around and started strolling away.

This is what it looked like close-up. It looked a lot smaller close-up than far away. There's nothing to be afraid of at all from bobcats, unlike mountain lions.

I watched it for the next five minutes as it traipsed along the forest floor. It had large lynx-type ears that twitched constantly. Its legs were very long.

It weighed about 30 pounds, or about twice as much as a house cat weighs. It was tawny colored, with large black spots all over it. It had a short, stubbed, fat tail. It moved slowly along the forest floor, sniffing the ground constantly.

Bobcats are really not dangerous at all, as a general rule, but a rabid one can attack you. Don't try to reach down and grab one or pet it, or you can be get clawed up badly.

I have been seeing quite a few bobcats in the past few years in the O'Neals - Coarsegold - Oakhurst area of Eastern Madera County, so I think their numbers are increasing. Their numbers were declining in California in the 1990's, probably due to overtrapping as the price per pelt went pretty high. I think the price must have gone back down because bobcats seem to be making a real comeback, at least in this area.

The California Department of Fish and Game has imposed a winter trapping season for the bobcat, so trapping is only legal for 3 1/2 months out of the year. This seems to be resulting in a population increase. Until 1972, it was legal to kill any number of bobcats in California for any reason, as it was considered to be an undesirable predator.

The behavior of this bobcat was not normal at all. A wild bobcat would not even have let me get near it in the first place, and even if it did, it would have run away so quickly it would have been hard to even get a good look at it. So the behavior of this Yosemite bobcat was excessively tame.

This is getting to be a bit of a problem with some of the park animals. The coyotes are getting very tame, and will walk right up to you. That's not normal for a coyote at all. A coyote should just run away as soon as it sees you. There has been a long-term problem with habituated bears in the Valley, some of which have to be killed if they get to be a nuisance.

There are now many raccoons hanging around the campgrounds and some mountain lions have started hanging around the campgrounds to prey on the raccoons. This is getting to be a bit of a problem too.

There are an estimated 700,000-1.5 million bobcats in the US. It is endangered in Ohio, Indiana and New Jersey and has suffered population declines elsewhere, but in general it is doing well. The US has petitioned to have the bobcat removed from the CITES list prohibiting trade in endangered species.

The Mexican Bobcat, a subspecies, is not doing real well, but the US has removed it from the endangered species list. The subspecies here in California is called the California Bobcat (Lynx rufus californicus).

For my European readers, a bobcat looks a lot like the European Wildcat or the Eurasian Lynx that you may be familiar with.

I have much more about bobcats and also a lot about badgers, in this older post.

This time around, the only mammal I saw was a Deer Mouse that inhabited my room at the Yosemite Lodge. Photo below.

Here is a photo of a Deer Mouse. There are also some other mouse species in Yosemite Valley, but I am pretty sure this was a Deer Mouse. The House Mouse, California Mouse, Pinyon Mouse and Brush Mouse also exist there, but they tend to look different and not be nearly as common. The Deer Mouse, so named because of its huge ears that look like a deer's ears, is typically the most common rodent in any area, outnumbering all other rodent species combined.

It is not commonly seen, but my cat caught a few of them in Oakhurst and I have seen owls catch them also in the same town. You can handle them, but you need to be careful. I captured the still-live ones my cat caught and took them inside to examine them. But I wore rubber gloves to do that. Afterward, I threw the rubber gloves into hot soapy water.

These things do have some viruses, such as Hantavirus. However, Hanta is found in the droppings of these animals, so you're unlikely to get it by handling them. But it's always a good idea to wear rubber gloves when handling any rodent. I have handled mice, voles and flying squirrels this way with no problems.