Basically, I have joint ownership over a couple large ponds/small lakes. On these bodies of water are about 30 or so domestic ducks who, besides being cute little buddies I can observe and feed, save a small fortune in plant and pest control and keep me from being eaten alive by mosquitos like I was before they were here. I take good enough care of them that a predator getting one is extremely rare even though they are free living. You might have seen me post before about a poacher killing them illegally in the middle of the night this summer and my attempts to catch that SOB including enlisting the help of a TX game warden, but now I've got another illegal hunter to deal with: a bobcat.

A bobcat showed up about three weeks ago and scared the hell out of the lady who feeds the ducks in the mornings when she walked right up almost on top of him (they were obscured by terrain from each other till the last moment), and he took off like a bat out of hell. I checked the cameras I had put up when trying to catch the jackhole poacher, and sure enough, the cat was stalking the ducks early in the morning. I kept an eye out regularly at dawn and dusk to see if I could get him, but he never came back. Well, yesterday he came back and got one of my older ducks. One of the other owners saw it happen. He was back again tonight hunting but got spooked by something and left before I could get out there. So apparently he's in the area, but I have zero idea of when he's going to show up, and I can't live outside watching for a cat who might not show up for a couple weeks at a time.

My ducks are not there for two-legged or four-legged idiots to kill willy-nilly, so I want this little shit dead and gone. I know how to hunt felons who think they're clever; bobcats, I don't. I don't have tons of territory to chase the cat over so my opportunities for getting rid of him are limited. Is there a good way to attract a bobcat to a specific spot, at least long enough to line up one good shot?

Will the game wardens trap it since it's taking livestock or are you keeping them out of the situation?

ETA Are you concerned about people's feelings when you trap the cat and it's screaming bloody murder?

My clients have hired trappers in the past for bobcats on their properties. You could go that route, or buy your own. They used tuna in the trap.

They did not make any noise in the trap. They'll hiss and growl when you walk up on them, but it won't be a scene.

Personally, not interested in stopping bobcats from eating wild ducks, but they are easily trapped or shot.

Unless it poses a danger to people, the game warden is not likely to do the work (unless a personal friend). Wild pond ducks aren't considered livestock in TX. They or local animal control if you have one in the county may lend you a trap.

Rabbit distress call, shotgun

The game warden was VERY interested in a poacher with a record of felonies shooting on private property in the middle of the night. Bobcats, not so much.

Thanks for the tips. Looking into what traps would be good and would involve, although I'd just as soon shoot the stupid cat too. Both times it's been spotted it would've been an easy 50 to 150 yard shot, if only I'd been in the right place at the right time.

The ducks aren't wild, they're domestic breeds we've added, own, and manage. Also have some placed here by a Houston wildlife rehabber. TX Game Warden took someone hunting them pretty seriously and pursued it aggressively.

I'd try a live trap baited with a can of tuna. Punch holes in the lid of the tuna can but don't open it. 

What are you going to do with it when you catch it? 

Sounds like a good plan. I will add this to the notes.

As far as what to do with it, depends on kitty. If trapping works out and I can find someone to move him the recommended 10+ miles away from here, I guess I'll do that. If not I will figure something out.

So far he's just killed a Muscovy, and TBH I'm not a fan of them and have already thought of removing them because except for the nice older one (ironically the one who was killed), the other three can be a royal pain in the ass. If he kills one of my Pekins, Swedes, or Anconas though...

Attached File

I always referred to Muscovy ducks as Apartment ducks.  My wife rescued one and brought it home.  It was cool until it ran off my wild ducks.  Then he didn't know the difference between his pond and my swimming pool.  Made pool maintenance a pain that summer.  
As far as the cat goes, live trap and relocate.  If you decide to shoot I won't blame you one bit, but for some reason I enjoy Bobcats.  
Good luck in finding a solution that fits your situation.

Live trap and then craigslist free kitty.

Rabbit distress? OP says kitty likes duck, somehow find a duck distress!!! Guarantee a dead kitty in a matter of minutes if its around.

If you're close enough and you really don't want to keep it, I'd like to call dibs if you catch him. I'll take him to the "farm."

Unless you actually want him released. I'd love to have a bobcat pelt. 

I give no shits where that dumb cat ends up, as long as he goes away. If he turns into a pelt, I'm a-okay with that as well. Thus far watching for him at hunting times has been fruitless unfortunately, so he hasn't won himself a shiny new .308 yet (sorry, I know that would probably fuck up the pelt).

I bought a trap earlier in the week and it arrives Tuesday, so we'll see if I can get him that way too.

You near DFW by chance?

Provide a nice food source for predators, and they will come.

Bobcats are really scrappy, so you will probably need to trap AND kill them.

Rope to trap handle and the whole thing goes in the pond. 

@Frost7 any luck on catching your bobcat?

Not so far. I'm still trying to get that little ratfuck SOB. He hasn't gotten any more of my ducks so far, but not for lack of trying. He's been spotted stalking a couple times, and I've also gotten him on camera twice just after sunup since I posted this but he has not yet gone for the bait in the trap. Going to try putting the trap in a couple different locations next.

I have caught the same raccoon and the same opossum innumerable times though. The opossum is now almost tame from being caught so much; yesterday he was in the trap again in the morning asleep in the back of it behind the camo netting sleeping off his bait meal, and when I woke him up, he didn't want to leave and wanted to stay in there. <facepalm>

I have noticed the bobcat shows up in the mornings semi-reliably when it's been hot, and then suddenly cools off significantly. Given it just did that today, I will be out around dawn tomorrow in a discrete spot with my Benelli along his known hunting trail. Maybe I'll get lucky...

That's too bad.

If he's not hitting the trap maybe try some electronic calls. The Ihunt app and a Bluetooth speaker would be a low cost option.

Sadly no, I'm between College Station and Houston.

Ironic, I was just out in Caldwell, 15 minutes or so from College Station, visiting family on a rannch. They had also lost 2 ducks previously from what they believe is a bobct. Lost a third while I was there. We hunted sparingly but didn't see him.

Good luck- hope you catch/bag him.

Have you checked TX laws?  In TN if I caught him I would HAVE to kill him.  Illegal to transport.  I catch coons and squirrels and can't legally transport them to relocate.  Legality is somewhat questionable and TN state regs are vague.  I had a coon tear off boards and get in my attic.  Dispatched him.  Don't know if proactively trapping other coons is justified without evidence of damages.  Same thing with squirrels.  From the TWRA website:

"Landowners have several options for dealing with nuisance wildlife.  As a landowner or tenant, you can legally capture some species of nuisance wildlife without a permit if the animal is discovered to be causing damage.  You may purchase a live box trap at most garden supply or home improvement stores.  Once the animal is captured, you must release or euthanize the animal on your property.  If you would like to have the animal released, you must have a permitted ADC operator transport the animal to an approved release site."

As usual they say "some species" but don't specify which.  They don't explain what "damage" is.  Usual legal Catch-22 BS.  Trapping "In Season" is all well and good but doesn't help with nuisance animals.  Also if I "euthanize" a nuisance animal in the city I would have to be extremely careful who knew about it since they also don't specify what differentiates euthanizing from animal cruelty.

Some folks shoot trapped nuisance animals, some use the swimming test (while in the trap) and I've heard some put the trap in a 50 gallon trash bag and wrap the open bag end around a truck exhaust pipe for about 60 seconds.

Some folks ignore the rules and take kitty or Rocky for a long ride in the country to a new happy home. Shouldn't be damned complicated but it is here.

Bobcat are considered fur bearing animals in tx and can be hunted for recreation year round with a regular hunting license. As long as he isn't commercially trapping op just needs a hunting license.

No clue on the transport issue.

Do you need a hunting license even just to kill or trap a nuisance predator that's killing your animals?

One correction to what I said, bobcat are classified as non-game animals not fur bearers.

to answer your question this is what the TPWD says on their site about nuisance non-game animals. link

Argh... I almost got him tonight. He's been gone a long time, and lo and behold, a couple nights of 20 degree weather and here he is stalking my ducks.

If I'd had night vision he'd have died about an hour and a half ago. My ducks were going crazy, I went out with my binoculars... Mr. Bobcat smelled me or saw me around the same time I spotted him in the binoculars and charged me. Dropped the binoculars, raised my Benelli, but I couldn't see jack shit without the binoculars. Hit the light on my shotgun and he was about 25 yards away, but in that time he realized he messed up and was charging something way too big for him, and instantly bolted into some brush. I only caught his tail end disappearing into the undergrowth. I suppose I could've dumped buckshot blindly into it and maybe I should have, but I doubt I'd have hit him.

Game camera shows he was out there going back and forth stalking from 1:53 AM till 3:02 AM when he saw me and made his ill-informed charge at me.

The hunt continues.

Of course, he did not go in my bobcat trap that was nearby because an opossum had eaten the bait and was using it as a hotel yet again.

dang!  you're getting closer.

i've heard people using a live trap with only a feather or some bright tinsel as an attractant.  they also cover the live trap with burlap and sticks/grass/snow to camouflage it.  i don't have bobcats regularly in my area, so i don't purposely go after them.

I know people like to keep them around because they eat ticks and other pests. But, If the possum it hitting your trap as a regular food source, is get rid of him.

Any luck yet?

Still no. Last sighting was 8:30 AM a few days ago, he jumped out of cover at one of my neighbors who was walking his dog, then thought better of the attack and hightailed it out. I recently shifted locations of the trap to a spot closer to his last three sightings. Wish I'd gotten him on that aborted nighttime attack he made January 2nd. He hasn't managed to get another of my ducks at least.

I did get the area raccoon this morning who was a more minor duck-stalking menace, so I took him with me on an errand (with much complaining on his part) and let him off in the forest about 20 miles away. Wasn't in the mood for a coon-skin hat, so he got to live to go do raccoony things elsewhere.

Mr. Cat has also been spotted regularly on a neighbor's property... thinking of asking him if he minds if I set up an extra trap there as well. Far as I know he doesn't care for the bobcat either since he's got a few smaller animals, so maybe he won't mind my extra efforts to get rid of him.

Wow, that's one ballsy feline.

Still rooting for you though.

Cameras caught him around 3:30 AM slinking up to my pond and my Smart NAS alerted me. Ran out there to find him trying to catch my one remaining Muscovy male (I got rid of all the females in January because I was sick of their mean behavior toward my domestics; he didn't get them). He missed, but escaped into the brush before I could line up a shot on him.

Think it might be time to start trying some pheromones or something around the traps to lure him over to them; the scent of fresh meat alone's not doing it for whatever reason.

Damn cat is just not going to give up, but neither am I. He keeps coming around eventually he's going to make a mistake.

He is a young dumb male, infatuated with your easy food source. I’m betting he is already trap shy.

Stake out a live duck in an open area. Stay ready...

It sucks your havung such a hard time with this cat. Have you tried an electric caller yet? I called this big (34lb) male in the day before yesterday.

Attached File

Judascovy.

If you’re using a box cage trap you’re wasting your time in my opinion.  I don’t think most will go in one. M

I would be using a fast four coil spring jaw trap in a flat set with a few feather attractants.  The trap pan catch would need a working over to lighten the trip. Dangling feathers on a bit of string from a branch to draw ole bob in for a look see.

It’s not terribly hard but setting a flat set jaw trap is a touch of art.    You might get one to stick his head in a cubby for bait but that’s more a coon set or maybe a fisher.  Placing a dirt set you need to visualize the way a target would approach and think about the bait.    Set the trap where the front paw would natural be if they were sniffing your trap.  Scent control is huge unless your lucky.  You can bury a trap and have it invisible but if they smell it they may dig it up without being caught.  My friend was trapping fox at my place to save some of my chickens.   He was pretty careful but the fox still dig up his trap and then took a crap on it.   This for a guy that boils his traps and wears rubber gauntlets to make his sets while kneeling on a bit of cloth to keep his scent from being transferred.   Fox, bobcat and coyotes are challenging.

If legal there and if I had no worries of pet dogs I might use a snare or even a Conibear if you got a fence crossing or path through thicker brush to guard.  You’ll have to be a fast learner in scent control on your gear.

Minor update: Mr. Bobcat appears to have reproduced.

Still haven't gotten Dad, but Son was learning to hunt stalking my ducks and was out in the open last night. He won't be doing that ever again.

Nice.

Got any pictures?

Sadly no. In hindsight I should’ve taken some. I already disposed of the body.

Got this one with the crossbow because getting my rifle would’ve required running to the other side of the house and I didn’t want to lose the time as he was perfectly placed to quickly get onto him without him being able to see or smell me till I went over the rise in the land, at which point I’d have him dead to rights (and that’s exactly how it went).

I was aiming for the forehead but misjudged the drop of the bolt just a bit and hit him in the mouth instead... broadhead went through the mouth, through the cat, and out the back. He did a double front flip and thrashed to the side and then was a goner in about a second and a half to two seconds. It was... a mess. I went out to finish him off just incase as I don’t want an animal to suffer needlessly, even a predator I’ve grown to hate, but he was toast by the time I reached him.

Damn, good shooting.

Haven't seen my pesky feline in a while, but hey, now a human has been bagged instead. The poacher who shot at my ducks and then at me, and has been giving me grief with irregular visits (usually in the middle of the night) for about a year and two weeks is now in jail. In jail, and denied bail. BYE BYE ASSWIPE! Never got charges to stick for what he did to me, but he had the absolute brilliance to shoot a lawn care worker in the back with an air rifle while driving by in his truck a couple miles away and that did him in.

Oh well, whatever gets the job done.

My neck of the woods just got a little bit more peaceful. Now I just gotta watch for animals, and not worry about an armed felon on top of it.