What the Hell Have I?

As the last inane jogger ambled out of view, I began to venture down onto the trail. My eyes were drawn towards a series of coyote brush about 100 yards out as the sun began a rapid descent towards the horizon. No sooner had the jogger passed when out of the bushes, a small creature darted across the path. At first, I thought maybe it was a fox. It was too cautious to be a coyote and far too small for a mountain lion. Plus, I'm not that lucky. Instinctively, I ran towards the creature who had settled down for a low stalk in the tall grass leading into the forest. Normally, I would never run directly at an animal. My technique typically involves getting into position and then waiting for the animal or bird to approach me. But something about this critter was different.

As I came up upon him, we immediately locked eyes. The markings on his body and the size of his tail suggested bobcat but there was hardly any fur left on his face. I was on land bordering Moraga and thought perhaps a Savannah cat had escaped from its owner's mansion, but the face and wild nature of this beast suggested otherwise. For several tense moments, we continued to assess each other's intentions before he slinked into the woods to continue hunting for voles. I immediately started sending photos to some of my friends, attempting to identify this strange looking animal. And then I remembered the weird video of a fox my brother had sent me years earlier. That animal was running around somewhere in the midwestern US with a case of mange so severe, it had rendered him unrecognizable. The same was now true of my bobcat friend.

Mange is a parasitic infection caused by mites that can infect birds, mammals, reptiles, and even plants. Most of the time, it will pass on its own but when an animal feeds on rats poisoned with rodenticide, it weakens their immune system and the effects of mange begins to waste away at the poor, unsuspecting creature. I was certain that was what was happening here. Concerned for the animal's safety, I contacted a local wildlife rehabilitator. Animals with mange must be treated with multiple rounds of antibiotics measured out carefully for the animal's weight and distributed over a two week period. This meant the animal would have to be trapped. And because he was on EB Watershed land, only the County could do it. To be continued...