When two bobcats got into a public screaming match in Carrollton, Texas, their dispute understandably drew some onlookers.
The animals, who, according to the video’s creator, had been fighting moments earlier, are seen standing stock-still, their noses inches apart as they release a series of wails that will raise goosebumps on your arms. It’s an unearthly sound, unlike anything we’re used to hearing in urban areas.
Kevin Martuscello shot the video from the safety of his nearby car, and he noted that before he took the video, the bobcats had been in a physical brawl. “They were clawing and scratching, biting at each other, jumping up and down in the air. It was a wild scene,” he told CBS Dallas/Fort Worth.
The standoff that we see on film is almost as unnerving as a physical fight. The focused intensity of the bobcats is truly something to see, a wilderness ritual that looks incongruous on a well-groomed front yard. Eventually, one of the big cats, seemingly bested in this mysterious battle of wills, relents and walks away, as his vanquisher looks on.
Mating season for bobcats begins in the fall and runs through the winter, when this video was taken, so it’s possible that this duel helped to establish a mating hierarchy for these animals.
Though this video was taken in Texas, there have been a lot of bobcat sightings around Calgary recently. The animals tend to live in the southern parts of Canada, as well as much of the United States.
