Below is the third photo in a series of wild Bobcat photographs taken in Yosemite National Park in early March. This is one of many very close photos I was able to capture of this beautiful wild creature. Ironically my entire trip to Yosemite was devoid of wildlife encounters until I began my drive to leave for home at mid-day.
Wild Bobcat (Lynx rufus, Yosemite National Park
The story behind this photo and wildlife encounter is that I was leaving the park and got stuck behind a small traffic jam of 4 cars. As the backup cleared I drove slowly by a shaded snowy embankment. Just as I turned my head to the left to see what people might be slowing for the head of this cat popped up. In fact the bobcat stared me square in the eye as I passed. To date I’ve had horrible luck photographing bobcats so I was very frustrated I couldn’t pull over immediately. After driving a 1/4 mile or so I finally found a spot to safely pull over and park my car. I quickly got my camera out and attached my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and 2x TC. I was actually quite pessimistic I’d be able to catch up to the bobcat to photograph it, but I decided to give it my best shot. I ran towards the meadow across from my last sighting of the cat.
At the time the park was covered with a thick snow covering from a large storm the previous week. This made running around tricky. The meadows were covered in snow 2-3 feet deep with a few clearings of dead grass scattered across the landscape. Trying my best to stay out of the snow I ran parallel to a guessed path of the cat as quietly as possible. After 3-5 minutes of tracking the bobcat I found it standing in the shade of some trees. I took a few quick “look I saw a bobcat” photos mostly of its profile with very busy backgrounds and decided to try my luck moving ahead of its path to photograph him/her coming straight at me. It was very important to not disturb the bobcat so I aggressively ran far ahead and would take up position out of the cat’s view. I consistently guessed correctly where it was heading next enabling me to get quite a few good photographs. In one instance the cat walked with in 30-40 feet of me oblivious to my presence. The result was the photo you see above.
[tags]Yosemite, National Park, wildlife, photo, photography, Lynx rufus, wild, stock[/tags]
Great story about the bobcat, Jim. Interesting thing about that photo is that for some reason the cat looks bigger than it really is. Shhhh… I won’t tell anyone. 😉
BTW, I enjoyed watching the second installment of your Arctic Wildlife Refuge video podcast earlier this week on the bus to work. Great story about the wolf shot.
Take care,
Dan
Wonderful image Jim.
Kudos, on this one Jim…
May I be so luck someday soon…
Hum…so you must have been on the Southside Drive then? I always see animals on the exit of the North…they are probably avoiding the Bobcat aka Lynx 😉 Maybe next month for the Moonbow 😉
Congrats on your encounter here Jim. Isn’t it a great feeling? Your heart must have been pounding with excitement when the bobcat came so close.
wonderful capture. How lucky were you.
@Dan glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the podcast.
As to the size of the bobcat for those that are unfamiliar its about about the size of a smaller medium size dog. With out anything to provide scale it could look bigger than it really is.
@Chris and @carole Thanks!
@bodieangels Thanks. Actually this was taken not too far from Yosemite Village. I had heard reports of a couple bobcats in the valley. It’s great to see wildlife rebounding there. Now if only the number of people could be controlled to ensure wildlife safety.
@Mark It was a great experience. Seeing wildlife on their turf is the best.
Jim, when I visited the Yosemite Gallery this last weekend (the one attached to the Indian museum) I checked out the art show. There were plenty of excellent Yosemite landscape shots — but not one single wildlife shot. I immediately thought of your bobcat. I think it’d make an excellent addition.
I just had the same experience this weekend. First time to Yosemite, saw precisely zero critters beyond the usual everywhere ones. But the weather was lovely and I enjoyed it, and even though it was too late to get into Hetch Hetchy, I decided to drive through the Stanislaus National Forest to see the aftermath of the Rim Fire anyway. About halfway down Evergreen/Hetch Hetchy Road, in the heart of the burn, this same fellow sauntered across the road about 50 yards in front of me. When he saw the car, he applied a little haste, but I was still able to watch him another 50 yards up the wash he was following, as I drew alongside where he had crossed. I came across this image googling to see if there’s a larger bobcat in Yosemite than down here in Monterey County. I’ve seen several in the past couple of years, but they seem much smaller and lighter colored. I think it’s probably just the bushy winter coat they don’t get down here, plus maybe better eating up there. Nothing but ground squirrels for them down here!