A Vancouver-area man had a rare encounter with a bobcat while walking on the Shoreline Trail in Port Moody Tuesday.
Peter Lepine was walking along the trail at around 4 p.m. when a woman told him a bobcat had been chased up a nearby tree by two coyotes.
Lepine, who is a photography enthusiast and happened to have his camera, walked through thick brush andwas able to snap some pictures of the treed big cat..
“The cat was up there looking down. It was about the size of a collie dog,” he said. “Not as big as a cougar, but definitely bigger than the largest cat I’ve ever seen. It looked like an adult.”
GALLERY: Bobcat caught on camera in Port Moody
Lepine said there were other people along the trail at the time, including families with children.
But conservation officers told Global News the large cats do not pose a threat to the public.
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“They’re not a public safety threat whatsoever. They might kill the odd chicken, but they’re pretty safe,” conservation officer Sgt. Steve Jacobi said.
Jacobi said bobcats are very common throughout the Lower Mainland, but he has never heard of coyotes chasing them.
“Packs of coyotes get fairly dominant and the bobcat was probably threatening their territory,” Jacobi said, adding that coyotes don’t normally prey on bobcats.
Lepine said while he thought the bobcat might be dangerous at first, it was far enough from the trail that he could get close enough to get some great pictures.
The encounter with the beautiful wild cat was Lepine’s first bobcat sighting.
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