Video: Another Possible Bobcat Sighting In Stratford

STRATFORD, CT — What appears to be a bobcat strolled Sunday through residential Stratford, as seen on the Neighbors app. And unlike previous sightings, it was alone.

A surveillance video, titled "Look who's back... Bobcat," and uploaded Sunday, comes after two Neighbors app uploads in January, both of which captured a trio of apparent bobcats near Stratford homes.

The newest video, timestamped just before 7 a.m., shows the animal saunter across a driveway, stop in a circular planter to wag its tail and trot off, stopping further down the driveway.

"Not sure where his friends are this time," the uploader wrote under the video. "Hope he's hunting for moles again!"

Connecticut's bobcat population was once dwindling, until the animal was classified in the 1970s as a protected furbearer with no hunting or trapping seasons, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The bobcat population has since recovered due to legal protections, as well as improving forest habitat conditions.

In December, a 12-year-old boy in Fairfield was scratched by a bobcat and suffered a minor injury after encountering the animal in his backyard. However, bobcat attacks on people are extremely rare, according to the state environmental department's website, and the animals don't typically cause conflicts with human activities, although they do occasionally kill livestock and attack domestic cats.

Bobcats are most active just after dusk and before dawn, the website said. The environmental department is asking Connecticut residents who see bobcats to report the sightings to determine the size and distribution of the population. Anyone who spots a bobcat can notify the state by emailing deep.ctwildlife@ct.gov, posting on the Facebook page for the department's Bureau of Natural Resources at www.facebook.com/CTFishAndWildlife or recording observations through the free app iNaturalist.

For more information about bobcats in Connecticut, visit bit.ly/2ZTYJ1V.

Ring, the owner of the Neighbors app, is a Patch advertiser. Patch received no compensation for this article.