Rye Brook Police Report Sightings Of 'Multiple' Bobcats In Area

RYE BROOK, NY — Sightings of bobcats in the neighborhood have police urging residents to take precautions to make their homes less inviting for the wild cats.

Police said the animals have been spotted near Rockinghorse Trail and Country Ridge Road. Authorities are asking homeowners in the area to make sure their garage doors are closed to keep the cats from seeking warm shelter in an inappropriate space during the recent sub-freezing temperatures.

Bobcats are native to our area, but with the exception of rare cases, experts say the animals are unlikely to be besotted by humans because of their notoriously reclusive nature. The cats almost never pose any danger to humans.

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Bobcats can be found throughout the continental U.S. and most of North America. Most states have seen a rise in the bobcat population, according to the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management.

Bobcats in our area are roughly twice the size of a domestic cat, and are usually smaller than the Canadian lynx, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Their reddish coats are dense, short and soft in the summer, and become longer and grayer in the winter. Long hairs sprout out of their cheeks and black tufts stick out at the tops of their ears.

Male bobcats are larger than females, averaging 21 and 14 pounds, respectively, though they can be over 30 pounds. Males are also slightly longer, stretching 34 inches, compared to 30 inches for females.

In New York, the free-roaming felines are known to eat white-tailed deer, rabbit and hare.

"They eat deer more often during the winter than other times of the year and will store or cache carcasses for future use," state officials told Patch following a bobcat sighting in White Plains in Jan. 2020. "Deer can be a valuable prey item in areas of deep snow because one carcass can last for several weeks."

Bobcats are known to shy away from humans. Typically, bobcats hunt rodents and rabbits for food and stay away from suburban neighborhoods, Ted Stankowich, a behavioral ecologist at California State University, Long Beach told The New York Times in April of last year following a violent bobcat attack caught on camera.

In the unlikely event a hiker or homeowner does encounter a bobcat in suburbia, the Department of Fish and Wildlife experts have recommendations on how to keep both yourself and the animals safe:

• Try to scare the animal away by shouting and waving your arms in the air to appear larger.
• If handy, use a hose to shoot water at a bobcat.
• Throw rocks at the animal.

Patch's Daniel Hampton and Andy Nguyen contributed to this report.