The Bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family, Felidae. With
twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to
northern Mexico, including much of the continental United States. The
Bobcat is an adaptable predator that inhabits wooded areas, as well as
semi-desert, urban edge, and swampland environments. It persists in
much of its original range and populations are healthy. With a gray to
brown coat, whiskered face, and black-tufted ears, the Bobcat
resembles the other species of the mid-sized Lynx genus. It is smaller
than the Canadian Lynx, with whom it shares parts of its range, but
about twice as large as the domestic cat. It has distinctive black
bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby tail, from which it
derives its name. Though the Bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it will
hunt anything from insects and small rodents to deer. Prey selection
depends on location and habitat, season, and abundance. Like most
cats, the Bobcat is territorial and largely solitary, although there
is some overlap in home ranges. It uses several methods to mark its
territorial boundaries, including claw marks and deposits of urine or
feces. The Bobcat breeds from winter into the spring and has a
gestation period of about two months. The Bobcat has been subject to
extensive hunting by humans, both for sport and fur, but its
population has proven resilient. The elusive predator has featured in
Native American mythology and the folklore of European settlers.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcat
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1880:
Australian bank robber and bushranger Ned Kelly was hanged in
Melbourne.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly)
1918:
Germany and the Allies signed an armistice treaty in a railway
carriage in France's Compiègne Forest (delegations pictured), ending
World War I on the Western Front.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_with_Germany_%28Compi%C3%A8gne%29)
1965:
Ian Smith, Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia,
issued the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, a move that the
British government and the United Nations condemned as illegal.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_Declaration_of_Independence_%28Rhod…)
1975:
The Australian constitutional crisis came to a head as Prime
Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed from office by Governor-General
Sir John Kerr.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis)
2004:
Mahmoud Abbas was elected Chairman of the Palestine Liberation
Organization after Yasser Arafat died from an unknown illness.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
apotheosis: Glorification, sometimes to a divine level; deification;
crediting a person with god-like power.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apotheosis)