Amid a jumble of surplus plastic drainage pipes at Oceanside's Arrowood Golf Course, a young feline family is growing.

For about a week, four bobcats ---- a female and three kittens ---- have been seen crouching and playing among piles of gravel and recyclables, all stacked inside the protective masonry wall that surrounds Arrowood's maintenance facility.

Workers are treading lightly so as not to disturb the animals, said Joe Neri, golf course superintendent.

"We're trying not to go over there too much," he said. "We're just trying to let them be."

Neri said reports of an adult bobcat walking along Village Drive near the water tower inside the Arrowood development started coming in about two weeks ago.

Several days ago, he said, workers noticed the mother cat watching her brood play outside a makeshift den sandwiched between large-diameter drainage pipes left over from the new course's construction.

Since then, the employees have watched the new mother bring food back to hungry youngsters, often rabbits or squirrels she nabs while foraging in a protected wildlife area just to the north.

"It's been amazing to watch, but, like I said, we're trying not to cause problems for them," Neri said.

Harry Morse, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Game, said golfers should not worry about an encounter with a bobcat on the greens. He said the animals usually hunt at night, and run away from humans whenever possible.

"No one has ever been killed by a bobcat, and they are a very low-incident type of animal," Morse said.

Bobcats, according to fish and game records, weigh between 16 and 28 pounds and are 2 to 3 1/2 feet long. Mountain lions, by comparison, are much larger, weighing up to 180 pounds and reaching a length of up to 5 1/2 feet.

He said it is important not to feed the cats, because doing so can suppress their natural instinct to hunt for small rodents. Feeding wild animals, he said, only makes them more dependent on humans.

"Under no circumstances should they be fed," Morse said.

He added that seeing wild bobcats, especially so close to humans, is very rare. He said the species' target prey is "under a pound" and usually consists of mice, rabbits and gophers. He said it is unlikely that a bobcat would prey on a family's cat or dog, though steps should be taken to make sure that pets are kept away.

"We get called out every weekend for a mountain lion that has gone after a pet, but bobcats, they're just one of those no-harm, no-foul species," Morse said.

After seeing photographs of the four, Morse called the young family rare.

"We very seldom get calls on bobcats. Bobcats are pretty cotton-pickin' reclusive, so that is amazing," he said.

Call staff writer Paul Sisson at 760-901-4087.