Bobcat vs. Lynx

Main Difference

The main difference between Bobcat and Lynx is that the Bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae and Lynx is a genus of mammals

• Bobcat

  The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is a medium-sized North American cat that first appeared during the Irvingtonian stage around 1.8 million years ago (AEO). Containing two recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to central Mexico, including most of the contiguous United States. The bobcat is an adaptable predator that inhabits wooded areas, as well as semidesert, urban edge, forest edge, and swampland environments. It remains in some of its original range, but populations are vulnerable to local extinction (“extirpation”) by coyotes and domestic animals. With a gray to brown coat, whiskered face, and black-tufted ears, the bobcat resembles the other species of the midsized genus Lynx. It is smaller on average than the Canada lynx, with which it shares parts of its range, but is several times larger than the domestic cat. It has distinctive black bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby (or “bobbed”) tail, from which it derives its name.

  Though the bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it hunts insects, chickens, geese and other birds, small rodents, and deer. Prey selection depends on location and habitat, season, and abundance. Like most cats, the bobcat is territorial and largely solitary, although with 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 spring and has a gestation period of about two months.

  Although bobcats have been hunted extensively by humans, both for sport and fur, their population has proven resilient though declining in some areas. The elusive predator features in Native American mythology and the folklore of European settlers.

• Lynx

  A lynx (; plural lynx or lynxes) is any of the four species (Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx, Bobcat) within the medium-sized wild cat genus Lynx. The name “lynx” originated in Middle English via Latin from the Greek word λύγξ, derived from the Indo-European root leuk- (“light, brightness”) in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes.Two other cats that are sometimes called lynxes, the caracal (desert lynx) and the jungle cat (jungle lynx), are not members of the genus Lynx.