The sighting of a bobcat kitten in northern New Canaan, followed this past weekend by three sightings of adult bobcats in the same part of town, have local Animal Control officials thinking that “we are probably going to have more.”
Bobcat (Lynx rufus) kitten (one-eyed) at Generals Highway, ca. 580 m a.s.l., Sequoia N.P., California, USA. Credit: Laura Cortada González/Wikimedia Commons
Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt—based on past sightings in New Canaan—has believed the town has at least two and possibly three of the animals living here.
With the reported appearance of the kitten, “We are probably going to have more, because we know we have at least one kitten and so we have at least one male and one female.”
The kitten was seen at about 12:19 p.m. on Aug. 25 on Deep Valley Road, on the edge of the St. Luke’s School campus.
Three adult bobcat sightings were reported this past Saturday and Sunday, all of them on upper Smith Ridge Road, near the Vista, N.Y. line, Kleinschmitt said. Bobcats typically keep one main den and may have additional ones. The wildcats are rarely seen and therefore very difficult to photograph, Kleinschmitt said. New Canaan has had two different sightings in the Lukes Wood Road area in the last two years, and just twice in five years has anyone been able to photograph a bobcat in town, she said.