What is this critter?

[scaredychicken]

Give it space

(that's all I got )

 

[BigBlue1]

I know what it is not...

Not hungry.

 

[wmfamily]

I think i know what this one is...

View attachment 806812

I think that's a bear of some variety.

 

[Threepoint]

I'm going to say Eastern Coyote, also call a Coywolf. A hybrid developed over the years between the western coyote and the Canadian gray wolf. Much larger than the western coyote, but not quite as large as the full-blooded wolf. They are common up and down the East Coast. We have a pair living in our area that take fawns and even yearling whitetails from time to time.

Or, it might be a less common Eastern Red Wolf.

Attached is a picture my nextdoor neighbors snapped of a Coywolf right behind their house a few weeks ago.

 

[lman]

I'm going to say Eastern Coyote, also call a Coywolf. A hybrid developed over the years between the western coyote and the Canadian gray wolf. Much larger than the western coyote, but not quite as large as the full-blooded wolf. They are common up and down the East Coast. We have a pair living in our area that take fawns and even yearling whitetails from time to time.

Or, it might be a less common Eastern Red Wolf.

Attached is a picture my nextdoor neighbors snapped of a Coywolf right behind their house a few weeks ago.

That picture looks nothing like the bobcat posted by the op. I guess they do both have four legs.

 

[Hoot Owl]

I trap in southern Mo. and that is a Bobcat with a longer than normal tail. I have seen them with a few long hairs also.

 

[ponytug]

We have all three here. I would add that here our bobcat coats are quite variable, spotted, not, tan to quite rufus, but tiny animals. We have only seen one as large as our coyotes. Even our big bobcats couldn't carry a fawn like that. We don't have the eastern coyote/wolf hybrid here, and again just by size, our coyotes couldn't carry a fawn like that. Ground squirrel, yes, fawn no.

Based on the size of the fawn and the ease with which it is being carried by the animal in question, I would vote for a mountain lion, who dine almost exclusively on deer.

Fun photos!

All the best,

Peter

 

[ning]

We have all three here. I would add that here our bobcat coats are quite variable, spotted, not, tan to quite rufus, but tiny animals. We have only seen one as large as our coyotes. Even our big bobcats couldn't carry a fawn like that. We don't have the eastern coyote/wolf hybrid here, and again just by size, our coyotes couldn't carry a fawn like that. Ground squirrel, yes, fawn no.

Based on the size of the fawn and the ease with which it is being carried by the animal in question, I would vote for a mountain lion, who dine almost exclusively on deer.

Fun photos!

All the best,

Peter

Same here; the bobcat(s) I generally see are about as big as my bigger cats - 11-15 pounds. I once saw a cat that was likely in the 20# range.
Our fox here is the California Gray fox and it's a little creature. Puffed up it's the size of our cats but though it chased (if you can call it that) the bobcat out of our yard one night - basically yelling at the cat, cat moves back another 20', fox moves forwards, yells at the cat, repeat until the bobcat finally left the yard - the fox is likely about the same weight as my smaller cats. It's not unwelcome in the yard as it's purely nocturnal as far as I can tell and my chickens are put away by then; the fox cleans up fallen fruit in our little orchard and helps with the rodents.

Coyotes here are coyotes... they seem to vary a lot in size. I've seen a couple that are "pretty good dog-sized" like a medium sized german shepherd, though likely much more lightly built. Most look to be in the 25-35# range. Strangely, I almost never see coyotes any more (area is 10-30 acre parcels in general with lots of undeveloped and wild space) - they used to regularly have moonlit festivals in the meadow (yip yip yip!) but I think I've heard that once in the last five years.

 

[MossRoad]

For comparison... video of bobcat killing a fawn.

Watch until near the end. There's almost the exact same camera shot as the OP's pictures.

 

[MossRoad]

Now compare the size of a mountain lion next to a bobcat.