Experts try to catch orphaned bobcat kitten

LAKELAND — Bruce Nance spends most of his days trying to capture feral house cats so they can be spayed or neutered and vaccinated.

This week he has faced more elusive prey than usual: a bobcat kitten.

Nance, who’s worked as a trapper for 16 years, is leading the effort to capture a juvenile bobcat after its mother was killed, apparently by a vehicle on Harden Boulevard in Lakeland.

Adam Stanfield, executive director of Lakelandbased SPCA Florida, said he got a call July 21 from a leader with Big Cat Rescue, a Tampa nonprofit that houses rescued and abandoned animals ranging from lions and tigers to bobcats. The group had heard about the orphaned bobcat in Lakeland and asked for Stanfield’s help in trapping it.

Big Cat Rescue didn’t have any traps small enough for a bobcat kitten, he said.

The bobcat is estimated to be 2 or 3 months old, Nance said. Without a parent, it is at risk of being preyed upon by coyotes, foxes and even raptors, he said. “It may or may not survive on its own,” he said. “Because of its age, it should still be feeding off mama. So we would like to catch it and get it to Big Cat Rescue. The sooner we can catch it and get it to them, the better the kit will be.”

The bobcat’s sex is not known. No other kittens have been sighted, but Nance said it’s possible the mother left behind more than one. He said capturing the animal is a job only for an experienced trapper.

If captured, the bobcat will be taken to Big Cat Rescue. The facility would raise the animal until it can be released in the wild, Stanfield said.