Police on Tuesday received a report and photo confirming a bobcat sighting on Marvin Ridge Road, the fifth sighting in less than one month of a species known for its reclusiveness.
Bobcat photographed April 3, 2018 on Marvin Ridge Road. Photo published with permission from owner
Bobcats are “showing themselves on a regular basis,” according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control Section.
Residents should continue to report the sightings and “check your security cameras routinely for any other large predators that we would like to know about and accept be aware of their presence, just like coyote, bear and the possibility of a mountain lion passing through,” Halm said.
The five recent bobcat sightings were as follows:
- March 6: Hickory Drive
- March 16: Toby’s Lane
- March 29: Frogtown Road
- March 27: Summersweet Lane
- April 3: Marvin Ridge Road
Though the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has collared 50 bobcats as part of an effort launched earlier this year to track the animals, none were caught in traps in New Canaan, Halm said.
“They’re too smart,” she said.
Bobcats pose no real threat to humans, though they will prey on domestic cats. According to the DEEP, bobcats’ prey includes rabbits, woodchucks, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, white-tailed deer—typically young or injured—birds, and, to a much lesser extent, insects and reptiles.
They breed between February and March, and one to four kittens generally are born in a litter in April.
New Canaan in early 2016 had a string of bobcat sightings, including on Dogwood Lane on the west side of town.
Officials long had believed that New Canaan had two bobcats: One that travels the Ponus Ridge corridor on the western side of town and another in the area of Gerdes Road. In September of 2014, a bobcat kitten was seen on Deep Valley Road, and Animal Control officials predicted at the time that the town would see more of them.
In 2015, bobcats were spotted on Jelliff Mill and Gerdes Roads in February, Wahackme Road in April, Oenoke Ridge in October and Michigan Road in December.
Seldom seen, they’re most active after dusk and before dawn, and bobcats make dens from which they may travel up to four miles per day.