A family of bobcats hide under a trampoline near Steve Johnson's home in northwest Lawrence.

Stephen Johnson said he’s noticed that there are not as many rabbits and squirrels in his neighborhood.

And the Kansas University researcher thinks he knows why — he took some photos Thursday afternoon of a family of bobcats on the prowl.

Johnson, a research scientist with the tertiary oil project at KU, sent some photos to the Journal-World of three bobcats he spotted in his neighborhood near the Fall Creek Farm development in northwest Lawrence.

“The pictures were taken from my yard (3400 block of Riverview Road) but the cats were in the neighboring yard, which is actually Arizona Street,” Johnson said in an e-mail to the J-W.

The bobcats head for the woods.

“The cubs are about the size of a large house cat and the mother looks about twice that size. They emerged from the woods separating our neigborhood from Fall Creek Farm (the woods lie either side of a power line) and played around and under the trampoline. It was raining and they seemed to appreciate the dry grass.

“I observed them for about 30 minutes and they seemed healthy and relaxed, even when they became aware that I was watching them they did not seem worried. I did not get closer than about 25 meters.

“I would guess this is the family that was reported a few weeks ago. I had noticed that the number of rabbits had taken a nose-dive in recent weeks – this would explain why.”