British Columbia Woman Films Cougar and Bobcat Tussling at Top of Tall Tree

A British Columbia woman caught remarkable footage of a bobcat and cougar fighting atop a tall cedar tree last month.

Chilliwack resident Tammy Jordan, a hobby wildlife photographer, told CTV News she spotted the cats brawling at the top of the tree near her backyard.

“I was in the kitchen making dinner and something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention,” she said. “Something big was moving.”

At first she thought it was a raccoon, but when her family got out the binoculars, they could see the two cats balancing on the uppermost branches.

Jordan estimated the cedar is at least 100 feet tall.

She said it had appeared that the cougar had chased the bobcat up the tree and was trying to attack the smaller cat.

“It moved really fast, but it was three times the size of the bobcat,” Jordan said. “It would move up to that tiny top little branch, and the whole branch is moving and [the bobcat] is doing whatever he could to get away.”

The sun set before Jordan could see whether or not the bobcat escaped, but she said the family tried to scare the attacking cougar away.

“It was too far away to throw a rock so we just made lots of noise, hoping we were intimidating it,” she said. “But we couldn’t see anything.”

Wildlife experts say showdowns between cougars and bobcats are very rare – but not unheard of – in British Columbia.

Mollie Cameron, wildlife specialist with Pacific Wild and founder of the Cougar Coexistence Initiative, told CTV News she was only able to track down records of two incidents in which cougars preyed on bobcats in the province.

When asked if she thought the bobcat might have escaped, Cameron said the odds were against it.

"The cougar more than likely won the fight," she said. "Unless gravity won the fight."