Oregon cats

[Bluedog88]

Anyone have pictures or can tell me the difference? There a 3 subspecies,2 in central Oregon and one west over the cascades.

[catdog360]

It's just color.

[david]

It's just color.

Man, you are taking after the old cat hunters of your dad’s era. Lol

That is about as much information as I could get out of those guys too.

I ran the coastal cats and rarely the cascade west side cats. Only hunted east of the summit once. But the coastal cats seem smaller, more elusive, shorter hair, narrower belly strip, and yes, the color was more red and not as pretty as the cascade cats I caught.
(For size perspective, I know of three cases, and a possible fourth, where coastal bobcats crossed with domestic cats. So there are probably more cases I don’t know about).

Cascade cats seemed easy to catch by comparison to the coastal cats, but that might have to do with the habitat as much as the cats. The one eastern cat I hunted was not a challenge at all, and again, that might have to do with the fact that there was absolutely no underbrush and few trees. They used to call the eastern high desert cats “lynx cats”. Although they are not lynx. I don’t know if they still call them that.

I always had the impression the texture got longer/silkier/softer with more guard hairs the further east I got. But that could have been partly my imagination/ sparked by knowing the fur buyers gave significantly more money for the cats the further east they were caught.

But if I am a hunter of cascade cats or desert cats and you ask me that question, my answer is: “it’s just color. And those red coastals are the pretiest color of all!”

[Bluedog88]

Thanks. The 2 in central Oregon one is in the desert and rocks and the timber cat in the pines. Treed a bunch during pursuit season or they went down in the rocks haven't had the chance to shoot one yet.

[david]

FYI
An alleged coastal bobcat mating in WA and developed into a breed:

“Pixie-Bob History”

“The Pixie-Bob breed is believed to have started from the accidental mating of a bobcat and a barn cat in the state of Washington, which produced a female kitten named Pixie, owned by Carol Ann Brewer. Pixie became the foundation mother of the breed in 1985. (The breed’s bobcat ancestry has never been genetically proven, although it is widely believed among breeders.)”

[david]

Thanks. The 2 in central Oregon one is in the desert and rocks and the timber cat in the pines. Treed a bunch during pursuit season or they went down in the rocks haven't had the chance to shoot one yet.

Try to start them when they are heading away from the rocks. Even in the coast hills west of Salem there were rocks where the local cat hunters would not hunt. It was an awesome place to start a cat though just to get some trailing practice when time was short. And I have accidently/surprisingly caught them when they didn’t have time to make it to the rocks.

[Bluedog88]

It's tough they get jumped run hard and forget where all their caves are occasionally.

[dwalton]

The US forrest service recognize 12 species of bobcats for what it is worth. Some scientist feel that they are all the same with various looking bobcat that have adapted to the environment that they live in and the food source that they hunt. Bobcats that live in colder climates will have more fur, ones in wet climates usually have red hair with less under coat. I have seen bobcat just a few miles apart such as in the next drainage over a mountain be colored different. As far as how they are to hunt, cats that live in open rim rock country, big timber or heavy brush country will because of there environment will bring different requirement to how you hunt them and the type of dog that works best to hunt them. As far as different species, I think that only gives the environmentalist a reason to stop hunters and trappers from hunting. Dewey

[catdog360]

See David it's just color

[david]

you told on me.
That is what I was trying to say though.
You didn’t get that from my post?

I get a little tongue tied, as you know.

[dwalton]

It's just color maybe or maybe not? I have seen cats caught in NE California that were dark with a brown belly well spotted that looked like a western coast cat and I have seen them from the coast range that look like a eastern Oregon cat. Most of the time bobcats will look alike from a same area. I have seen enough bobcats that I know there are always exceptions. Maybe it is because bobcats like wolves can travel a long ways. It is odd that the wolves that come across country to western Oregon pass up a lot better habitat with game to come over here in this brush country with little wintering range for deer or elk, all with tracking collars and tagged from the Imnaha pack which is causing most of the trouble by killing livestock over there. Maybe the wolves know to leave the country over there before they get shot or maybe not. Dewey