I was driving back from town into my homestead the other day when I suddenly found myself slamming on the breaks as I was just coming in to the turn into my homestead.
Standing there, looking terrified, right in broad daylight in front of my car, was a bobcat!
I had never seen one in the flesh before, even though I’ve lived out west for a number of years already.
I was pretty surprised; I knew there were native to the region but assumed there wasn’t any in the region.
My first concern was for my goats, so I did some research.
So, will bobcats attack goats?
Yes, they certainly will. Bobcats are opportunistic hunters, and if they find goats in an enclosed space they can get into, they will not hesitate to attack them. that’s why it’s really important that you take steps to defend your goats from bobcats.
So, yes, bobcats are a real danger to goats.
Many native predators are.
But your goats are not helpless if you implement just a few basic measures to keep them safe.
Protecting your goats against predators is going to be something you need to know about if there are any in your area.
Read on to find out more.
Do bobcats kill goats?
Yes, they do, and they will at the first chance.
Bobcats are precisely the kinds of animals that would prey on goats, and goats are exactly the kind of prey they would go do.
Even though bobcats aren’t as big as, say, mountain lions, they’re still more than capable of taking down a goat.
The thing about goats, when we keep them, is that they’re always enclosed, in a space where they have nowhere to run.
Predators realize this, and use it to their advantage.
There are many things that attract animals like bobcats to human habitations, as I’ll get into later.
But you need to realize that the bobcats will see your goats as easy targets, as long as they’re aware they’re there in the first place.
So, yes, not only will bobcats kill goats, but they are almost certain to do so if they come across goats in an enclosure.
Do goats have any means to protect themselves, then?
Can goats defend against bobcats?
In real, practical terms, no, goats cannot defend against bobcats.
A goat’s natural instinct is always to run away from danger.
They have a primary drive to flee from danger, and not a strong one to stand and fight.
That said, if a goat is cornered, it will do its best to protect itself.
It can charge, and if it has horns then it does stand a chance of doing serious damage to an animal like a bobcat.
But bobcats are fast and wily, evolved as perfect predators.
They are much more likely to take the goat down than the goat is to take them down.
It’s not impossible that the goat might successfully defend itself, but it’s also not very likely, either.
So, for that reason, you need to take steps to protect them yourself.
How do I protect my goats against bobcats?
There are some really important things you can do to defend your goats against bobcats.
Firstly, you can take measures to stop them from coming around in the first place.
Make sure everything is clean—they will be attracted by the smell of garbage.
Measures like installing motion sensor LED lights around the property is another good way to discourage them from coming around.
They will tend to hunt at night, and they will be discouraged by bright lights.
Fencing needs to be secure and high, but height alone won’t stop a bobcat—they are masterful climbers.
Electrified fences are going to be one of your best bets at keeping them off.
Barbed wire is needlessly inhumane, so don’t bother with that.
Make sure your goats are securely locked up in a barn or enclosure at night.
One that has walls and a ceiling, and nowhere for predators to slip in.
Your best bet, though, is going to be guard dogs.
A pair is usually best, as bobcats will hunt alone, and they would not ever challenge two dogs.
If you have well trained guard dogs, you’re very unlikely to be bothered by predators of really any kind.
Do bobcats hunt wild goats?
It’s worth noting that populations of feral goats in the U.S. are extremely sparse, amounting to somewhere from 5-10,000 individuals in the whole country.
That said, again, goats are precisely the kind of prey that bobcats might go for.
At the same time, they are smaller than other cats and a full grown goat might be a bit much for them.
They are opportunists, as I said, and this does mean they would be more likely to try and nab an easy meal in an enclosure than to hunt in the wild.
But it is certainly not impossible.
Bobcats will and do attack goats and other livestock, then; they are notoriously troublesome.
But, today more than ever, we are all equipped with readily available methods to defend our goats against such attacks.
The most important piece of advice I can give is to always take the threat seriously.
Even if you live, as I do, somewhere where predators like bobcats are native but you’ve never seen one, you still need to take measures to defend in the case of an attack—however rare it might be.