Wildlife experts say a bobcat found dead near a Bangor neighborhood where roughly 20 pet cats have gone missing in recent months may have played a role but likely wasn’t solely to blame for the disappearances.
Trisha Bruen, Bangor’s animal control officer, said a vehicle struck and killed the female bobcat on Buck Street near the horse barn entrance to Bass Park on Thursday. The animal was found roughly two months after the other cats began vanishing from the Fairmount neighborhood.
Those missing pet cats remain mostly unaccounted for, according to Jennifer Delano, a neighborhood resident who created a map of where they live. Only one has returned home, and neighbors haven’t reported finding the remains of any cats.
A 2,200-member Facebook page dedicated to the Fairmount neighborhood has become a clearinghouse for residents hoping to solve the mystery. It’s filled with reports of missing cats alongside pictures of felines people have recently seen, photographed and shared in the hopes of bringing good news to a desperate owner.
Read more about the mystery
While bobcats can kill house cats and the carcass was found near where so many of the pets have been reported missing, Bruen said she doesn’t believe more than a dozen cats could have fallen victim to a single one of them.
“I still believe multiple species of wildlife, and possibly even some humans, are responsible for the missing cats,” Bruen said. “The only way to ensure our cats don’t fall victim to wildlife attacks, thefts and vehicle strikes is to keep them inside.”
Jennifer Vashon, a game research supervisor for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, agreed that house cats have a variety of natural predators, including bobcats, but added that it would be “pure speculation” to say the one that was found on Tuesday was responsible for all the missing Fairmount cats.
While the bobcat could hunt a house cat, Delano said neighbors are still divided on what or who is causing the cats to go missing. Some believe a coyote is responsible, as they’ve been known to roam through the neighborhood. Others think human involvement is more likely.
“I personally think [a bobcat] makes a lot more sense than a coyote,” Delano said. “I guess we will know if cats stop disappearing.”
Delano said she purchased GPS trackers for the two of her cats that like to roam outdoors after the disappearances started. The trackers allow her to know where her pets are and ensure they’re inside before sundown, she said.
Regardless of whether the bobcat was involved in the disappearances, many owners of missing cats only want closure.
Fairmount resident Celeste Curtis still hopes her cat, Pascal, will return home after he was last seen on Aug. 14.
While Curtis doesn’t believe the bobcat was the sole reason for the disappearances, she wants wildlife professionals to help her and other pet owners get concrete answers.
“Some people think it’s coyotes and some people have heard fishers at night,” Curtis said. “I just wish people like game wardens or wildlife biologists could come in and scour the golf course, because they’d know where to look and what to look for.”
Curtis keeps her four other cats indoors for their health and safety. She allowed Pascal to go outside because she adopted him as a stray and “you couldn’t keep him in.”
“I miss him terribly,” Curtis said.
