SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (UPI) — An Iowa hunter captured photos of the unexpected visitors he received in his tree stand — a trio of bobcat cubs.
Wendell Van Beek of Sioux Center said he was out hunting in the woods last month when he climbed up to his hunter blind in a Woodbury County tree.
Van Beek said the deer started to come out and he soon noticed bobcats in the area, including a mother bobcat with three cubs.
He said the bobcats wandered around the area before he noticed one had gotten particularly close.
“I heard kind of a thunk sitting right beside me and looked down and there sat one of the babies right next to me,” Van Beek told KMEG-TV. “Listening to the mama below and actually there were deer out in front of me and they were snorting and stomping at the mama underneath me.”
Van Beek snapped a few photos, which the Iowa Department of Natural Resources posted to Twitter Monday morning.
“I had an old wooden ladder that was going up to the blind and they were swinging on there just like they were monkey bars and just playing around and watching me, and it was quite an experience,” the hunter said.