Bobcat Snatches Shark From Surf

Cat-fishing?!What do you call a wildcat fishing for shark? One mighty brazen bobcat! This is a tale (no insult intended...

Posted by MyFWC on Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Here’s one you have to see to believe. A man near Vera Beach, Florida captured this stunning photograph of a bobcat snatching a nearly 3-foot shark right out of the ocean.

John Bailey sent the photo to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which posted it to their Facebook page earlier this month. Biologists believe the shark to be an adult Atlantic Sharpnose Shark just under 3 feet long. After some internal debate, they agreed the cat was in fact a bobcat and not a panther as some might have suspected.

The photographer said he saw the bobcat staring into the water at Sebastian Inlet State Park. The cat appeared transfixed on a shark feeding on small fish just a few feet from the shoreline when suddenly the cat leaped into the water and grabbed the shark. He said it dragged the shark up to shore but was spooked by the man’s presence and ran off. Knowing bobcats, it will likely return to the kill at nighttime as this is one brazen fisherman that leaves nothing to waste.

Featured photo by John Bailey courtesy FFWCC