Bobcat (Lynx rufus) Fact Sheet: Physical Characteristics

Body measurements

Data sources:
Total length, tail length: McCord and Cardoza (1982). Weight: Banfield (1974), Sunquist and Sunquist (2009b).

Body

• Size
• Medium-sized cat (Nowell and Jackson 1996)
• About twice the size of a domestic cat (Jackson 1961)
• Fur
• Very soft (Larivière and Walton 1997)
• Thicker in colder climates (Hall 1981)
• Molt occurs in spring and autumn (Pocock 1917)
• Coloration
• Upper parts light gray to yellowish brown to reddish brown (Banfield 1974; McCord and Cardoza 1982)
• May have stripe along spine (Jackson 1961)
• May have dark spots/blotches/streaks on sides, chest, and back, or only on underside (Jackson 1961; Nowell and Jackson 1996)
• Guard hair tips black (Banfield 1974)
• Under parts white with black spots (Larivière and Walton 1997)
• Adult coloration may change with season and age (Rollings 1945)
• Tend to be more reddish during summer, grayish during winter (Jackson 1961)
• Newborn coat tawny olive (Banfield 1974)
• Mottled or spotted (McCord and Cardoza 1982)

Head

• Head
• Proportionately small (Jennings 2017)
• Ruff of fur along sides of face (Nowell and Jackson 1996)
• Skull and jaws
• Large muscles attach to skull ridges and crests (Kelson 1946; Larivière and Walton 1997, except as noted)
• Particularly well developed in adult males
• Jaws strong (Kelson 1946; Larivière and Walton 1997)
• Ears
• Round at tip (Pocock 1917)
• Typically, with small pointed tufts (Pocock 1917; Rollings 1945)
• Tufts less than 1 inch in length
• Not present when coat shed (molt)
• Backs black with central white spot (Banfield 1974)
• Eyes (Jackson 1961)
• Prominent
• Pupils elliptical

Limbs and feet

• Legs
• Long (Jennings 2017)
• Inner forelegs have horizontal stripes (McCord and Cardoza 1982)
• Feet
• Front feet larger than hind feet (Pocock 1917; Larivière and Walton 1997)
• Toes joined by webbing (Pocock 1917)
• Claws
• Sharp and retractable (McCord and Cardoza 1982)

Tail

• Length
• About 1/4 of total length (Jackson 1961)
• Markings
• Black bars and black tip, above (Jackson 1961)
• White underneath (Jackson 1961)

Body size

• Males larger than females (Jackson 1961)
• About 10% longer (Jackson 1961)
• 25 to 50% heavier (Jackson 1961; Anderson 1987)
• Influenced by region, topography, mating system, and possibly food competition (Anderson 1987; Sikes and Kennedy 1992; Dobson and Wigginton 1996)

May be confused for Canada lynx

• Habitat use comparison (e.g., Peers et al. 2013)
• Bobcat and lynx tend to use different habitats
• Use different habitat areas, where live in same region (sympatric)
• Physical characteristics comparison
• Bobcat smaller than lynx, on average (Hall 1981; Larivière and Walton 1997)
• Bobcat has shorter hind legs, smaller feet, and shorter ear tufts (Rollings 1945)
• Bobcat has black only on top of tail; lynx has black all around tail tip (Rollings 1945)

Bobcats often have small ear tuffs and a ruff of fur along the sides of their face.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.

Illustrations from a 1918 National Geographic Society book contrasting the physical characteristics of a Canada lynx (top) and a bobcat (bottom).

"Canada Lynx/Bobcat (Bay Lynx)"; p. 411 in Edward W. Nelson's Wild Animals of North America (1918).

Image credit: Made available by Biodiversity Heritage Library (contributed to BHL by American Museum of Natural History Library). Public domain.