The questions that swarmed a Pinellas Community after jarring images emerged of a dead bobcat hanging in a tree are likely to remain unanswered.
In late April residents in the Country Villas neighborhood in Safety Harbor began questioning the peculiar scene: a bobcat clinging to a branch 30 feet in the air, dead.
For days, animal advocates and volunteers worked to get the animal out of the tree ― a task that would prove challenging to coordinate.
But residents did so hoping to find answers on how the bobcat died.
Many suspected rat poison killed the animal, though they also raised the possibility of a disease that has harmed wildcats in South Florida.
But a necropsy performed on the animal along with a toxicology screening provided inconclusive answers.
A combined look at both reports reveals a glimpse into the creature’s life.
The bobcat was estimated to be female, and just 1 to 2 years old. Her last meals comprised a bunny and a bird. She died around April 30, and hung in the tree for several days before a volunteer got her down.
The animal’s cause of death was listed as unknown.
The necropsy, provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, stated in multiple instances that the bobcat’s body was too decayed to make many physical assessments.
However, the report said a car could have hit the animal.
Fairl Thomas, who spent days coordinating the bobcat’s retrieval with volunteers and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said she finds that scenario unlikely.
Thomas, a wildlife volunteer rescuer for Birds in Helping Hands, said it’s often obvious that a car struck an animal because it’s likely to have at least one broken bone.
The report stated the bobcat had no obvious fractures. The animal did, however, have bruising along its ribs. Thomas said the bobcat’s position in the tree could have caused the bruising.
A toxicology report performed by the University of California, Davis, did not find any evidence of poisons, drugs or environmental contaminants in the bobcat’s body.
Because of the bobcat’s decomposition, physical signs of anticoagulants (chemicals found in rat poison that thin blood) like bleeding from the mouth or eyes, would also be difficult to determine.
The report evaluated the animal’s stomach contents. Thomas said to get a full picture of rat poison in the bobcat’s body, the animal’s liver also should have been tested.
State wildlife officials did not immediately respond to a question seeking clarity as to why the animal’s liver was not tested.
“We had such a major problem with anticoagulants in this area, I feel pretty strongly that it’s possible that the animal was at least exposed,” Thomas said. “I’m disappointed that we’re never going to really know.”
About two years ago, wildlife lovers were devastated by the death of a family of great horned owls in Safety Harbor’s Philippe Park, more than two miles from where the bobcat was found. Necropsies found they had died of rat poison, possibly ingested by eating poisoned rodents.
The poison commonly sickens animals, including pets, that eat the contaminated rodents or come in contact with baits directly. The death of the owl family prompted the creation of “Safety Harbor Owls,” a group dedicated to educating the public on the dangers of some rat poisons and rescuing injured animals, of which Thomas is a member.
“It’s so rare already for us to see an animal like a bobcat in an urban neighborhood like Safety Harbor,” Thomas said.
“We need to be doing everything that we can to protect these animals … whether it be poisons or car strikes or pollution.”