Well J-man and I went for an evening bike ride to check out a nearby lake. We biked through a nature reserve on our way. We were going to use it as a short cut but about 100 metres from our chosen exit from the park we rounded a corner and I saw a large cat leaving the path in front of us and disappearing into the brush.
I mostly only saw the rear of it. It was a light tan colour, about 2-3 times larger than a domestic cat, had a very short tail that was the same colour as it's body, maybe slightly darker. It didn't have any obvious marking that I could see but it was walking into bushes at the time. It had very powerful looking hind legs and I think I saw the tips of it's ears which looked black.
Needless to say J-man and I were wary and decided to turn around. Biked an extra couple of minutes to previous exit and then biked along a parallel road. Our first ever big cat. I definitely feel that I have lived a sheltered life in nz.
I have checked photos of bobcats as I know that type of cat is common here in socal, but the tails look too long for what i saw and they have distinctive markings of dots on hind legs. It still could have been a bobcat but I don't know what other cats are around here so I'm curious if anyone has an suggestions.
I have told J-man I won't going biking or walking through there again until I know what kind of cat it was an I get one of those ear piercing personal alarms.
