Bobcat — with bobkittens! — spotted in a Nashville park

Micah Puncochar is a wildlife lover. He lives just north of Shelby Bottoms and maintains a dedicated trail camera to glimpse the private lives of Nashville’s mammalian neighbors.

So, when he and his 3-year-old daughter spotted a female bobcat and her three bobkittens last week — in broad daylight — he knew it was a special experience.

“There’s a chance that I’ll never see a bobcat sighting like that ever again in my life,” Puncochar said. “It was incredible.”

Between 1 million and 3.5 million bobcats are estimated to reside in the U.S., living everywhere from deserts to swamps and urban forests.

But sightings in Middle Tennessee are rare. There have been only two confirmed sightings in Shelby Bottoms in the past few years, according to park naturalist Julie Henry, who said most sightings are of adult wildcats.

“That kind of sighting, where you see the mom with the babies, that’s unusual and just an absolute treat,” Henry said.

Bobcats are about twice the size of a housecat, weighing between 10 and 40 pounds and measuring roughly two to four feet long. They’re identifiable by their short tails, black-lined tufted ears and ruffs of fur on the sides of their faces.

Bobcats tend to avoid humans, and they have traits to make that an easy task. Bobcats are nocturnal creatures that hunt by stealth, using their exceptional eyesight and 30-mile-per-hour sprints.

“You don’t have to worry about them attacking you. They’re not going to eat your children,” Henry said.

As Nashville grows, the bobcats’ shrinking and increasingly fractured habitat could make it harder for them to stay hidden.

But even though bobcats can be legally hunted in Tennessee, their population will likely continue to remain stable, thanks to their unique adaptability.

Henry hopes to study which corridors the bobcats are using within Shelby Bottoms, and she hopes to set up a new trail camera — because if wildlife has been spotted in one place, they’re likely to be spotted there again.