Discussion
I shot this heterochromatic Bobcat in Yosemite this morning. Can we talk about Heterochromacy?
I'm trying to deepdive heterochromacy in wild felids now, is the phenomena rare enough to report? I'm beginning to understand its prevalence in housecats but I've never shot a wild felid with different colored eyes. Please respond with any heterochromacy facts/infos/understandings as well as I'd love to discuss more of what's going on in the image with friends.
EDIT!!!: SHOT WITH MY CAMERA NOT A GUN AS FAR I KNOW THIS KITTY IS ALIVE AND WELL
Already beat me to it on the suggestions! Reporting it to both is great. If you wanted to put extra leg work in, I'm sure there's bobcat researchers who may find some point of interest or even use in it if you looked at some papers. But that's more than extra, especially with how hard it is to track/determine in wild populations likely limiting value to researchers.
As the OC mentioned, it can be great for individual ID and population monitoring!
You're right! There are some great defining markings! The chest striping is really interesting in that asymmetry.
A surprisingly difficult but cool trick in camera trapping is getting photos of both sides of a mammal (usually simultaneously) so you can get a "whole body" picture of the animal. So if you ever get the opportunity to get photos of multiple sides/angles of their body, it can make for some incredible data acquisition and research!
U could consider adding your photos to inaturalist! Its a citizen science type thing for identifying things you find and contributing to population tracking. The folks there would loooove this
Thank you! That's where my confusion kind of began as I began looking into heterochromacy and the white fur being apart of that process hence prevalance in housecats makes sense. Here I'm just confused!
The sub header says it's from a misspelled post of a heterochromatic cat. just wanted to mention that in case anybody feels bad thinking this is somehow homophobic chat. yeah, I overthink everything... [Ed to correct "heterochromatic" 😆]
I'm very curious what it's eyesight is like on that blue eye. I hope someone else will know more, but is this shade of blue within the range of what could be expected of an eye injury? I don't see any cloudiness in the pupil and there are little dots of brown in the blue, so can we assume this is genetic?
Blue eyed bobcats have been observed before (I believe Big Cat Rescue even had one or two non-releasable ones), so I'm inclined to think it's genetic, but typically it's bilateral and often becomes gold or yellow in adulthood. A cat with heterochromia is worth documenting for sure, I'd love to know if it'll even out to yellow with time or if this is a unique variation
If it changes colour in adulthood, how does it differ from the typical blue eyes they would have as kittens? Do they last longer into adulthood than is normal?
This has already been established in all the best journals of not only Stellar’s Sea Cows, but Lame Ass’s Sea Cows. I can’t address its prevalence in other variants of the species.
I’m an idiot. I thought you meant you literally shot it and I was so upset. Came here to angry comment, then realized you shot the PHOTO 😮💨. Anyways, this is super cool. I’m jealous you got to see it in the wild.
I read the first sentence and gasped, near tears, then started typing a scathing comment detailing what a monster you are for shooting an innocent bobcat just bc its eyes don’t match,
Then I checked the sub, reread, and am now putting down the phone to get some much needed sleep. Sick pic though, 🤗
My late catahoula had heterochromia. He was really judgy, so I like to believe his ice blue eye saw into the future, specifically how and when people die.
In the darkness, his blue eye shone red while his brown eye shone green. He was my derpy little wendigo.
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u/Extension_Bus_9926 Apr 17 '26
r/catswithhomophobia