{"id":202022,"date":"2025-09-05T10:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202022\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:10:09","slug":"watch-a-bobcat-crashed-our-beaverton-beaver-stakeout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202022\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: A bobcat crashed our Beaverton beaver stakeout"},"content":{"rendered":"

While monitoring trails for an Oregonian\/OregonLive project on beavers<\/a>, one of our cameras captured a bobcat slowly walking along the edge of a beaver dam in the Beaverton\/Cedar Mill area.<\/p>\n

Environmental reporter Gosia Wozniacka and photographer Mark Graves are working together to document beaver activity across the Portland region. Graves set up seven trail cameras at two private sites. Access has meant coordinating with landowners, a biologist with the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District and The Wetlands Conservancy. Placing the cameras required canoeing, sinking into hip-deep mud and clawing up steep hillsides on all fours.<\/p>\n

The cameras have logged dozens of beaver clips and a steady parade of other wildlife \u2014 green and great blue herons, wood ducks, muskrats, raccoons, river otters and, most often, nutria. Staff with The Wetlands Conservancy say this is the second bobcat sighting at the Beaverton\/Cedar Mill site.<\/p>\n

Bobcats in Oregon<\/b><\/p>\n

Bobcats can be found statewide<\/a> and thrive in almost every habitat in Oregon, including the edges of suburban neighborhoods. They\u2019re most active at dawn and dusk and are among the state\u2019s most elusive, stealthy animals \u2014 sightings are uncommon because of their behavior, not because the cats are scarce.<\/p>\n

In an email, Sam Fino, carnivore and furbearer coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said bobcats are active year-round and juveniles \u201ctend to disperse and establish their own territory in late summer into fall.\u201d Fino also said there is a healthy statewide population and bobcats are not endangered.<\/p>\n

According to ODFW\u2019s \u201cLiving with Bobcats,<\/a>\u201d the breeding season begins in February and, after a gestation of about 60 days, two to four kittens are born. The young are furry and spotted at birth, with eyes fully opening in nine days. By early fall, the cats become less dependent on their mother and begin to fend for themselves. Young bobcats usually strike out before reaching a year old and begin to establish their own territory.<\/p>\n

ODFW classifies bobcats as protected furbearers with regulated hunting and trapping seasons and mandatory check-ins that help track populations. Agency analyses indicate harvest is being sustainably managed and not negatively affecting Oregon\u2019s bobcats.<\/p>\n

According to the National Park Service<\/a>, males maintain ranges that can overlap with several females, while females generally avoid overlapping one another. Cats mark their boundaries with urine and scent-gland secretions. ODFW also notes bobcats undergo two annual molts \u2014 showing reddish tones in summer and grayish coats in winter.<\/p>\n

The animal in our video, captured on The Wetlands Conservancy<\/a>\u2019s private land, appears to be a younger cat out exploring on its own, though biologists caution age can\u2019t be confirmed without a physical sample, such as a tooth.<\/p>\n

Look for our full beaver story later this fall.<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you spotted beavers in your area? Email Mark Graves at mgraves@oregonian.com.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Graves, The Oregonian\/OregonLive<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While monitoring trails for an Oregonian\/OregonLive project on beavers, one of our cameras captured a bobcat slowly walking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4749,9829,1759,159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-202022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal","9":"tag-human-interest","10":"tag-nature","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115151150976505415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}