This is video from the night I got into the sounder a few weeks back on a neighbors property and couldn't shoot. I normally stop and check the side of the hill 3 or 4 times as I'm walking up, but I haven't seen anything in 5 or 6 trips, so I quit doing it. This time when I got to the top of the hill, and was about to go through the gate into another small pasture, where I killed a boar and saw another I stopped to scan the horizon. That's where I got the video. At first I thought it was a rabbit, but he's in taller grass/weeds than I realized, and I made some noise to try and get him to raise his ears.... After looking at the video at home on the computer screen, I'm almost positive it's a bobcat. There's a nice profile at 3:30 in the vid.
What's this critter?
- Thread starter customcutter
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No clue what the little critter is, but it's a shame your neighbor is harboring all those criminals and won't let you get after them.
Looks like a rabbit - classic profile with the head being hotter than the rest of the body.
Big jack rabbit would be my guess?? BANG BANG!!
I thought he was in the open too, but there are patches of grass and weeds in the pasture that are 12-15 inches high and I think he is sitting in a patch of that. If you have the volume turned up you can hear where I make some sounds trying to get him to raise his ears. Then I notice the objects moving in the background and think coyotes are after a rabbit, but it's shoats near the tractor. Just before it NUC's there is a profile of the head, you guys are losing some of the detail on you tube but it looks like short ears on top of it's head in several places also. Maybe it is a rabbit, but the 2 I've seen with white hot, the ears were almost glowing they were so hot.
I kinda wish it had been a bobcat after a shoat, and I had got that on thermal video. Now that would have been cool.....
I kinda wish it had been a bobcat after a shoat, and I had got that on thermal video. Now that would have been cool.....
One of the requirement for me to hunt the property I'm on is that I not wound anything and allow it to get back onto the neighbors property. He takes people on "guided hog hunts" at night with dogs. The land owners where I am don't want any problems. The last 3 weeks when I've been there, as I'm walking up to where I took this footage I hear the dogs start barking and they head south off of his property, then another 1/2 mile down to the river. I guess I'm going to have to find another night other than Friday/Saturday, or maybe get there right at dusk and try calling. I put out a barrel last Monday, time to check it.
Sorry Curly, no jack rabbits in central Fl that I know of.
I've got another 20 minutes of video, they got within 10-20 feet of the fence, but never crossed over. I've had some trophy Gobblers come up within 3' of the fence in Alabama, but wouldn't cross over. The hens and jakes would, but it was his lucky day. It's happened several times, if I have permission different story. If I don't, he lives to be hunted another day.
Sorry Curly, no jack rabbits in central Fl that I know of.
I've got another 20 minutes of video, they got within 10-20 feet of the fence, but never crossed over. I've had some trophy Gobblers come up within 3' of the fence in Alabama, but wouldn't cross over. The hens and jakes would, but it was his lucky day. It's happened several times, if I have permission different story. If I don't, he lives to be hunted another day.
I think you will benefit from greater actual experience in the future.
Okay, rabbits use ears as part of thermal regulation and control the flow of blood through their ears as they try to gain heat, lose heat, or retain heat. Ears may be up, or ears may be laid back. That you don't see ears sticking up from the rabbit's head is not unusual. That the ears are not standing out with a significantly different heat signature is not unexpected.
The shape of the body and the shape of the head as seen through thermal match what you would expect for a cottontail. That the critter is sitting in one spot for a long period of time matches what you would expect for a cottontail. These are not matches for a bobcat. The positioning and head movement are not right for a bobcat.
Part of learning to use thermal is learning to recognize animals based on atypical profiles created by heat signatures, and also based on how the animals move. It will come in time.
It most likely is a rabbit. Too open, even in tall grass or weeds for a cat to stay probably. I would have thought it would have raised it's ears when I made all the racket, but it didn't. I was hoping to get any kind of movement so that I could identify it. At that time I didn't realize the pigs were there.
