Families in a Northeast Dallas neighborhood recorded and reported several bobcat sightings over the last week, but the city says they don't plan to help relocate them.
Justin Easterling Schunck expected some form of wildlife in the neighborhood, but her son Miller discovered a bit more than she bargained for.
“I just heard a random, like, scratching sound on our side yard, and I look out my window,” said Miller Schunck.
Turns out, it was a bobcat kitten. Still, there was more.
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“On Thursday, we got a text from our neighbor, and he said, ‘There’s a bobcat on your porch. Wait. There’s another bobcat in your yard. Wait. There’s three bobcats.’ It was like this string of messages,” said Justin Easterling Schunck.
Schunck said they all eventually came face to face with the bobcat mom.
“By Friday evening, we were all outside and I had seen them,” she said. “A baby was eating under our car, and the momma came walking down the fence, jumped down and stared all of us down right there in the garden.”
The bobcats were recorded on home surveillance video in the neighborhood for a week. Schunck said they called the city but were told nothing would be done to relocate the wild animals.
NBC 5 contacted Dallas Animal Control, which confirmed a 311 call from the neighborhood.
A statement from the department reads in part:
“We are getting an abundance of sightings of moms and kits all over the city right now, which is normal since the kits are older and more active.”
The city forwarded additional information typically shared with residents who encounter bobcats.
"We do have a substantial population of bobcats across Dallas, so sightings are quite common. The city does not trap, remove, or relocate healthy outdoor wildlife for a multitude of reasons, but encourages healthy coexistence.”
Schunck is a mother to a toddler and said it’s a little unsettling.
“[The bobcat is] jumping across and then coming down our side yard. It doesn’t make me feel great,” she said. “I don’t know where else they’ll go, and if they’re multiplying, which it seems like they are, we’re going to have to have a rescue, some sort of bobcat rescue.”
For now, though, they plan to do just what they were advised -- live and let live.
“I’m not extremely concerned or anything. Just don’t mess with them and they won’t mess with us,” said Miller Schunck.
The United States Humane Society said bobcats are mostly nocturnal but can be seen during the day. If a bobcat with kittens makes a den near your home, people are advised to leave the den alone until the kittens are big enough to follow the mom to a new home.
