The drama unfolded on the Giant Saguaro Cactus in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. It is an enormous plant with two-inch spikes and is thought to be up to 300-years-old.Photographer Curt Fonger, 69, captured what happened on film.
He said: ‘A friend called me at 7am saying one of his workers had seen a bobcat being chased by a mountain lion.
‘It ran across the road in front of his car and climbed up a large saguaro cactus at the roadside, with the lion hot on its tail.’The lion didn’t pursue the bobcat up the cactus but circled the base.
‘It looked up at the bobcat, growled several times, then turned around and trotted back up from where it had come.’The mountain lion probably had cubs, the bobcat had intruded on its territory and she gave chase to warn the bobcat not to come close to her young family.
White Wolfpack reported the following (and remember there is video below so you can see this is not a fake story kids!) “I was astonished that the bobcat was on such a high prickly perch.’In fact, the beautiful creature seemed quite content and was lying on top of the cactus. It only stood up when I got it’s attention.’But I found out later that the bobcat stayed put for over six hours before finally deciding it was safe enough to come back down.”
White wolfpack also reports: “Curt, from Gold Canyon, Arizona, added: ‘Although it may be common for a bobcat to escape one of it’s major predators, it is very uncommon to have witnessed such an event first hand. ‘I personally examined the base of the giant cactus after the bobcat had left. ‘There was no hair or blood – only claw marks.” (wow we don’t know if our own kitty could have done this in her 20 years on the planet!) Though she did once take a bobcat on who fought her in our back yard/garden. The bobcat ran and fast. She also encountered a black bear here in Florida who she scared and jumped over the fence.
White Wolfpack reports: ‘Its a successful story of a bobcat avoided being eaten by a mountain lion with a happy ending of it’s successful exit back into the desert.’ The giant cactus is extremely rare. Just one in 1,000 seeds germinate and it then takes up to ten years to grow one inch.Its first arm develops between the ages of 75 and 100 years old or about the time they reach 15ft.” (They are right, most folks don’t realize that big cats can eat little cats. Sadly we had our dear relative’s kitty eaten by a cheetah many moons ago.
