ILLINOIS — A 5-year-old Colorado girl had the staring contest of her life on April 10 after a bobcat jumped into her backyard and locked eyes with her; such encounters may become more common — an encounter that could be repeated in Illinois and others as bobcat populations rebound.

The little girl is fine after the face-to-face encounter with the medium-size cat that is typically about twice as big as an average house cat. A North Carolina family had a more frightening encounter with a bobcat that later tested positive rabies, and had to take the rabies vaccine.
In most cases, experts say, people catch only a fleeting glimpse of the stealthy cats, which are as disinterested in confronting humans as they are in being confronted.

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