I agree the black tips on the ears are as puzzling as the tail.
Whatever it is it is a pretty animal and a very interesting picture - well worth over 9 pages of pre season discussion!!!

Yeah, 9 pages in 14 hours! We must be bored. I need to remember to start all my posts with "What is this animal? Game cam pic"

Definately a bobcat. The tail is the dead give away. That is not a long tail extending away from the viewer. It is a short "bob" tail with a slightcrook (and a dark tip). Also I have only seen one mountain lion inthe wild but several thousand in pictures. I have seen lots and lots of bobcats. Those with fewer spots are not all that uncommon. This is a poor picbut spots are definately evident along the belly and back. Oh its a bobcat allright.

I don't know, it kinda looks like a ruffed grouse.

I thought it was a Snuffleupagus?

I checked the lighting,brightened upthe shadows,and found out it's not a bobcat it is bigfoot!!!

Oh, c'mon guys. This is the first time I've stumbled across this thread, but Iam simply amazed at how people want to see something that's not there... and how peopleDON'T see things thatARE there.

Thanks Fletch and Matt for pointing out everything that I was going to say!

this reminds me of the time we had a small alligator in a pond on the plant I was working at. It was only 2.5 feet long, at most. Saw it several times. Word got around the plant, and folks kept coming by the pond trying to spot it, so they finallyput out a plant-wide email with a picture of the little guy, to help satisfy everyon's curiousity.

The pond as only like 30 feet across, and had a 3/8 " rope going across the surface of the water from side to side that they used for something, not sure what.
Anyway, the alligator was laying on the rope in the picture, kind of getting him some sun & whatnot. This old man that was working with us just insisted that the alligator in the picture was NOT the alligator in the pond. "Why that SOB is 10 or 12 foot long in that picture....just look at him"


You could never get him to just sit and think about that rope. If that alligator had been that big, that rope would have been about a 12" diameter rope LOL.

So I say again, look at the salt block...the white one is only about the size of a brick. I put several out last Saturday just like it.

I'm seriously confused as to how any of you can make that out to be a mountain lion. Concerning the dark coloring on the back of the ears, mountain lions often have this,as dobobcats. What they don't have, are the large white spots clearly visible on the back of the ears in this photo. They also do not have white-tipped tails, as is, once again, clearly noticeable in this photo. The biggest give away are THE FREAKIN SPOTS running up its legs and across the bottom of its belly. Can ya'll not see this. As far as the shape of the head goes, first of all, a male bobcat will almost always have a more squared off, blocky head than the females, leading me to believe that this is a male bobcat. They will however, appear more rounded in their winter coat because of the longer hair, making this trait less noticeable. I think some of you people need to spend some time watching the Discovery Channel. IT'S A BOBCAT!!!

I don't care about the color, ears, or tail. Simply the size should tell any sane person that it is not a cougar/mountain lion/puma...man I guess it could be a midgett mountain lion. Maybe its a sabretooth tiger that has been hiding up there all these thousands of years and the salt block drew him out. Maybe its bigfoot's pet cat? I'm off this thread too many loonys here