There are seven species of wild felines in North America. They are the Ocelot, the Margay, the Canada Lynx, the Bobcat, the Jaguar, the Cougar and the Jaguarundi.  The two species most often encountered are the Bobcat and Cougar. For this discussion I will focus on the Bobcat.
Bobcat (Lynx rufus) are very widely distributed throughout most of the U.S, Mexico and Southern Canada. I have seen Bobcat in several states, heard them and photographed them in Illinois. I have yet to get a good recording. Witnesses many times report hearing screams that they reason are either bobcats or cougar.
The following pictures were taken in Central Illinois, in the Spring of 2005. Â I was walking with my dog, who at the time was 5 months of age. As we came through a grassy knoll she froze and pointed towards a field of corn stubble. I happened to be caring my Canon DSLR with 100-400 zoom. I did not have time to extend the lens but instead pointed in the general direction and starting snapping pictures. I happened to be about 200 yards away from the animal and by its movement I did not think it was a coyote. Only after returning home and enlarging the pictures on my computer did I finally realize it was a Bobcat. The cats coloring pattern almost perfectly camouflaged it in the corn stubble.
Original.
And then with yellow highlighting to show the position of the cat.
I am doing recordings in several areas with consistent bobcat sightings so I hope to have sound files of these tough cats posted soon.
Copyright 2004-2010 by Stan Courtney. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
I believe the internationally recognized marker for blobs is the red circle, not a yellow outline.
It could be a bobcat, but it almost looks as though there is a tail hanging down between its legs, the muzzle seems rather pointed, and it appears to end in a black button nose. I would have to go with a rather high chance that it is a grey fox.