Bobcat swaps sharp teeth and claws of mountain lion for 5cm cactus spikes

When you're running for your life you don't have time to think about protecting your undercarriage. Take this bobcat, which clambered up a 15m (50ft) giant saguaro cactus and stayed there for six hours to escape a mountain lion.
His smart manoeuvre left the larger predator circling the base of the 300-year-old plant, where he stared up and growled before giving up and walking off.

The bobcat refused to crawl back down for several hours, instead sitting on the cactus’s 5cm (2in) spikes. Amazingly, it appeared to have suffered hardly a scratch.

The scenes were taken in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, by photographer Curt Fonger, 69, who said: ‘The mountain lion probably had cubs, the bobcat had intruded on its territory and she gave chase to warn the bobcat not to come close to her young family.

‘I was astonished that the bobcat was on such a high prickly perch. In fact, the beautiful creature seemed quite content and was lying on top of the cactus.’

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/873406-bobcat-swaps-sharp-teeth-and-claws-of-mountain-lion-for-5cm-cactus-spikes#ixzz1WK8b5til