VIDEO: Watch a Missouri Hunter Get THIS Close to a Curious Bobcat
When you're in the backwoods of Missouri, you never know exactly what you might run into. A new video share shows the moment when a hunter in Missouri got a little too close for comfort with a curious bobcat.
This just shared video by the YouTube channel Fatal Pursuit doesn't have any context as to exactly where this happened. The hashtags show it's a bobcat which is obviously a predator and that it happened in Missouri. Either they have a really good zoom lens on their camera or this was a close encounter with a potentially dangerous bobcat.
What do you do if you run into a bobcat in Missouri?
I was surprised to see Martha Stewart's website addressing what you do or don't do when/if you encounter a bobcat in the wild. It's actually a common sense approach of slowly backing away and giving the animal space. You'll rarely find a bobcat or any big cat for the matter that's aggressive. Most are solitary creatures that avoid human contact whenever possible. What you don't want to do is turn your back on the animal and run. If you appear that you're prey, that could cause the bobcat's hunting instincts to kick in which likely wouldn't end well for the human or the cat.
The Missouri Department of Conservation says that while bobcats used to be seen only in the Ozarks, they have now expanded their habitat northward and westward. That means if you're anywhere in the backcountry of Missouri, there's a chance you could have the close encounter this Missouri person did.