This movement, and their powerful leaping ability, is a result of having hind legs that are longer than the front ones.  They are larger than house cats and smaller than lynxes. Like lynxes, they have tufted ears.  Though they basically light brown with darker speckles, bobcat coloration varies with the animals’ habitats, with mountain and forest cats being darker than those of desert and semi-desert regions.

For the most part they are solitary animals, meeting only to court and mate.  Male bobcats’ territories - which they mark with shit, piss, anal secretions and clawmarks - overlap with those of several females.  The smaller female territories do not overlap at all.  Within these territories they mostly prey on birds and other small animals, although there have been reports of some bobcats managing to take down a deer, and they have at times attacked and eaten small livestock like goats and sheep.  For their part, bobcats are not a major part of other predators’ diets, except as kittens.  Then they are occasional prey for red foxes, coyotes, and owls.  Adults may come into conflict with wolves and cougars over prey, and they are sought by human hunters for their fur in areas where they are numerous enough to permit hunting.  In Mexico, they are endangered due to habitat loss.

For younger bobcats, the main causes of death are automobiles accidents, other accidents, and starvation - in other words, the dangers of inexperience.  Young cats (such as the one in the picture above) typically stay with their mothers for at least eight months, learning the skills needed to fend for themselves.  The kittens are born in early spring and follow their mother through her rounds until the end of the following winter.  If they manage to survive their youth, bobcats have lifespans of about ten to twelve years.

Bobcats are widespread, as they are capable of living in a variety of habitats - woods, brushlands, deserts, semi-deserts, mountains - limited only by space, prey, and deep snow (they cede the northern territories to the lynxes, who are larger and better adapted to it).  Within their territories they are not frequently seen, as they are quiet, reclusive animals.  They den in a variety of hidden places - tree hollows, piles of brush, thickets, among rocks and under ledges - and tend to be creatures of the night and dusk.  In some areas they have spread into urban and suburban zones, occupying a similar niche as the bolder coyote.  Indeed, in indigenous mythology, the bobcat is sometimes presented as a balancing counterpart to Coyote, a quiet observer and maintainer of order rather than a playful trickster and questioner of the status quo. 

Sources:

EOL
Wikipedia
Desert USA (site includes video)
Defenders of Wildlife
National Geographic

(You can tell we’re dealing with a “charismatic” animal here - there are a lot more top-level sites weighing in than there were for the more obscure or less attractive species.

On symbology (watch out for low-hanging Native American mysticism):

Mammal Symbology (ignore the Potter-fied header and scroll down)
Native Online
Raven Dreamer