Shared Moment: Tough Love

A photographer captures a dynamic image of a mother bobcat teaching her offspring a bit of self-defense

• Photograph by Barry Rowan
• PhotoZone
• Jul 31, 2017

TAKING FIRM BUT FRIENDLY SWIPES, a mother bobcat (at left) teaches her female offspring some potentially life-saving moves during a bout of play fighting. Working in a nature preserve in Santa Barbara, California, photographer Barry Rowan followed three generations of this family during four years. After one of this mother’s kittens disappeared, she began devoting herself to play fights with the other. “The loss seemed to redouble the mother’s efforts to teach her remaining kitten the hunting skills that she would need to survive on her own,” says Rowan.

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