KSC-98pc1602

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A young, male bobcat balances gingerly on telephone pole cables next to the south-bound lane of Kennedy Parkway. The cat is nocturnal and is seldom observed during the day unless scared from its daytime shelter in the grass or beneath a shrub. Usually found in broken sections of heavily wooded or brushy country, bobcats are reported as common in scrub strand and roadside or weedy grass habitats at KSC. The bobcat is known to inhabit mangrove habitats and will readily swim across small bodies of water. The bobcat occurs across southern Canada then south over the entire United States, except for the midwestern corn belt, to southern Mexico. It is the last large mammalian predator remaining on KSC. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is located on Kennedy Space Center property, is home to many species of wild animals, including the bobcat.