A Palm Beach Gardens mom is dealing with an unwelcome visitor: A full-grown male bobcat has been prowling the neighborhood in recent weeks.
Jennifer Wilson lives in the Shady Lakes community off PGA Boulevard, directly behind Watson B. Duncan Middle School and Timber Trace Elementary.
She says that the bobcat has been spotted in the neighborhood five or six times, including in her own back yard where it killed a rabbit.
Her 3-year-old daughter witnessed the rabbit incident and is now afraid to go in the yard and has been having bad dreams since, she says. And Wilson is afraid to let her puppy go in the backyard now.
Wilson believes that construction on a city soccer complex nearby displaced the bobcat and other wildlife, bringing them to her community.
She says she spoke to the project's manager who told her that the city didn't plan for wildlife being displaced by the project, aside from spending $50,000 to relocate tortoises.
Wilson called the schools to let them know about the bobcat, but calls to wildlife officials have not resulted in any action to remove the cat. A fence is all that separates her yard from the nearby schools.
She says she called a private trapper, but the bobcat wasn't around when they came.
WPTV spoke to Palm Beach Gardens media relations manager Candice Temple to find out if the city was planning to hire a trapper or take other action to address the issue.
Temple says there is no way to determine where the bobcat came from. She says that the sports complex land was cleared months ago and the bobcat would probably have emerged sooner if it was from the city's project.
Temple points out that there are several other projects currently in the works nearby that the animal could have come from. Without some proof that the bobcat was displaced by the city's work, the city won't be hiring a trapper at this time, as they have in other instances where it was clear that a city project had displaced a wild animal.
According to the city's website, the $11.2 million project includes five full size lighted multi-purpose fields, a concession building with bathrooms, a playground, splash pad and a lake. A second phase will add two more fields.
The project is being paid for by the one cent sales tax that voters approved in 2016 and is scheduled to be completed in fall of 2019.
