“Dunlap’s Gelatinous Bobcat Urine.”
I’m starting to wonder about Amazon’s suggestion process.
Apparently, at some point I either looked at or purchased an item that led Amazon to believe I’d be interested in buying some bobcat urine – in gelatinous form, no less. I found that odd, as I promise, I have never looked at any product that contained the word “bobcat” let alone the word “urine” in the description while shopping Amazon. Truth be told, I had no idea that Amazon carried anything urine-based.
I guess they really do carry everything.
Aoudad and axis deer checked out the gelatinous bobcat urine during the day.
Still, Amazon had me interested. I clicked on its suggestion and started reading all about Dunlap’s Gelatinous Bobcat Urine. I found out that Dunlap’s Gelatinous Bobcat Urine is made with premium bobcat urine (I wouldn’t expect anything less from Dunlap. Would you?) and, thanks to its gelatinous form, has a much slower evaporation rate than regular liquid bobcat urine. That means it’s a far more effective bobcat urine and, “lingers longer.” That’s all I needed to read! I clicked that “Buy It Now” button and placed my order. I received eight ounces of bobcat pee two days later.
But what to do with it?
I decided to use my Dunlap’s Gelatinous Bobcat Urine to hopefully get some bobcat photos. My friend, Dr. Richard Allen, has some property outside of Kerrville where I’d seen a bobcat before, and he graciously agreed to let me set up some camera traps utilizing my new purchase.
I set up two cameras. The first, I set over a large horizontal oak tree branch that I smeared with gelatinous bobcat urine. The second, I placed at the base of a scrub oak overlooking a pile of rocks smeared with urine. I left the cameras in place for about a week and a half before I retrieved the memory card.
The first camera caught quite a few surprises and most of them during the night. Picture after picture showed racoon after racoon and possum after possum smelling the smeared log. I somewhat expected that as both those animals are, well, gross and always looking for something stinky to eat. I did not expect to catch pictures of axis deer and whitetail deer licking the urine from the branch. Apparently, this is nothing very out of the ordinary as deer of all types lick urine to investigate what left it and how long ago.
Ahhhhhhh, the secret language of urine!
Though foxes, raccoons and possum inspected the gelatinous bobcat, no bobcat showed up.
My second camera captured pictures of deer and an aoudad licking the urine from rocks as well as a pair of foxes checking out the scent. It was odd that most of the pictures were captured during the day and that nothing visited the scent during the night. I also found it odd that I never caught a glimpse of a bobcat or even a house cat checking out the odor.
I’m not sure how to review my Amazon purchase as I’ve never used store-bought urine before. Do I give Dunlap’s Gelatinous Bobcat Urine five stars because it attracted lots of animals? Or only one star because it never attracted its intended quarry? Or perhaps I’m just overthinking this whole cat pee thing way too much.
Author Gayne C. Young has contributed to Sporting Classics for more than 20 years. He is the author of And Monkeys Threw Crap At Me: Adventures in Hunting, Fishing, and Writing, Texas Safari: The Game Hunters Guide To Texas, Sumatra, The Tunnel, Bug Hunt, Teddy Roosevelt: Sasquatch Hunter, Vikings: The Bigfoot Saga, and more. In January 2011, Gayne C. Young became the first American outdoor writer to interview Russian Prime Minister, and former Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Visit Gayne at his Amazon page.
