{"id":615,"date":"2022-12-31T17:14:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T17:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=615"},"modified":"2022-12-31T17:14:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T17:14:17","slug":"watch-a-bobcat-savagely-take-down-a-mule-deer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=615","title":{"rendered":"Watch a Bobcat Savagely Take Down a Mule Deer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"SingleImage-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<p>The bobcat finally makes its move. <span class=\"SingleImage-credit\">Will Hoffman \/ Facebook<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">When most people think about mule deer predators, they picture canids and big cats\u2014namely wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions. But bobcats are just as clever and tenacious as their bigger-bodied cousins. As you can see in the video below, these nimble cats are more than capable of taking down a deer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"GhqB0IzbPXA\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bobcat Takes Down Mule Deer!!!\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GhqB0IzbPXA?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The video was recorded a little more than two years ago by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/willhoffman101\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Will Hoffman<\/a>, a big game hunter from Idaho. Hoffman spends a lot of time exploring his local mountains, chasing elk and mule deer in season and hunting for sheds the rest of the calendar year. He\u2019s had plenty of wildlife encounters, but he still ranks the savage take-down video as one of the coolest things he\u2019s ever seen in the wild. He says the video has been viewed more than 20 million times since he first shared it on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@willhoffman101\/video\/6932630262119533830?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">social media<\/a> in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve seen several mountain lions, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019d ever glassed up a bobcat in the wild,\u201d Hoffman tells <em>Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cIt was just so crazy. I\u2019ll never forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Capturing the Footage<\/h2>\n<p>Hoffman explains that he was glassing for mule deer in a steep canyon when he recorded the video. It was Oct. 11, the second day of deer season, and Hoffman had spent most of the morning shivering behind a spotting scope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was watching a group of 11 or so deer, and there was a decent 3-point, but not something I was going to shoot,\u201d Hoffman says. \u201cI kept going back to this group to see if a bigger buck would step out, and a couple times I caught just a trace of movement. And then at one point I saw this bobcat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman watched the bobcat through his binoculars for the next 30 to 40 minutes. The deer continued to feed in the opening, completely unaware of the cat that was circling. After singling out the smallest muley in the group, the bobcat tried creeping up on the yearling a few times, but the buck kept getting in its way, causing it to back off and adjust its angle. When it dropped into the ravine below the deer, Hoffman knew the bobcat was getting ready to pounce. He grabbed his phone scope and started recording.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\" data-dimension=\"landscape\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/uploads\/2022\/12\/30\/video_bobcat_savage_take_down_mule_deer.jpg\" alt=\"video bobcat savage take down mule deer\" class=\"wp-image-226687\"\/><figcaption>The bobcat finally makes its move. <i>Will Hoffman \/ Facebook<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt was around zero degrees that day and blowing 20. I could even see the trees moving, so it was perfect stalking weather,\u201d says Hoffman. \u201cI\u2019d watch [the bobcat] move in, and then he\u2019d back out. Then he dropped down and started working up that ravine. And I\u2019m sitting here trying to keep it together because I was just so amped watching this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the bobcat finally pounces, it\u2019s only inches away from the yearling muley. It jumps up and grabs ahold of the deer\u2019s neck, and the two come tumbling down the drainage. After falling twenty feet or so into some downed trees, the bobcat appears to lose and then regain its grip on the deer. The video then pans out as Hoffman loses the two animals in the scuffle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to move my scope down just a little bit and ended up fumbling the video,\u201d he says. \u201cI honestly don\u2019t know if he killed that deer or not, but I glassed that mountainside for like an hour afterwards and never could find him.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-more-examples-of-bobcats-preying-on-deer\">More Examples of Bobcats Preying on Deer<\/h2>\n<p>While it\u2019s unclear if the cat secured its meal in this instance, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time that a bobcat has been documented killing a deer. This is definitely more common among whitetails, which are typically smaller than mule deer. Bobcats are also more abundant in the Southwest and the Southeast than they are in Idaho. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/2426685#:~:text=Similarly%2C%20bobcats%20in%20the%20Everglades,of%20an%20adult%20male%20deer.&amp;text=of%20large%20fawns%20and%20adult%20deer.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">One study from the Florida Everglades<\/a> found that bobcats killed at least 33 fawns and 6 adult whitetails over a three-year period.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout their range, bobcats prey on small- to medium-sized species,\u201d the authors of that study wrote. \u201cBobcats also kill large prey, such as white-tailed deer\u2026[while] in some areas, bobcats prey extensively on fawns of white-tailed and mule deer.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/conservation\/bobcat-fights-python-everglades\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Watch: Bobcat Fights a Python, Steals Its Eggs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Looking at the Western United States, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt4cgrdx.12?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Utah Division of Wildlife Resources<\/a> lists bobcats as a common predator of mule deer, especially in areas where cougar populations are lower. And in Wyoming, game wardens found proof of a bobcat-killed mule deer as recently as two years ago. After coming across the partially buried carcass, a wildlife officer set up a trail camera and captured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N2UIJpMAZs0&amp;ab_channel=WyomingGameandFishDepartment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">footage of the bobcat<\/a> returning to the kill site to feed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v3.2\" id=\"facebook-js-js\"><\/script><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/survival\/watch-a-bobcat-take-down-a-mule-deer\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bobcat finally makes its move. Will Hoffman \/ Facebook When most people think about mule deer predators, they picture canids and big cats\u2014namely wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions. But bobcats are just as clever and tenacious as their bigger-bodied cousins. As you can see in the video below, these nimble cats are more than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gun-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}