Bobcat

The bobcat is a native North American species that inhabits forested, wetland, urban edge and semi-arid environments. Though the bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it will hunt anything from insects, chickens, geese and other birds and small rodents to deer. Prey selection depends on location and habitat, season, and abundance. Like most cats, the bobcat is territorial and largely solitary, although with some overlap in home ranges. It uses several methods to mark its territorial boundaries, including claw marks and deposits of urine or feces. Although bobcats have been hunted extensively by humans, both for sport and fur, their population has proven resilient. The elusive predator features in Native American mythology and the folklore of European settlers. The bobcat has been historically important for First Nations for clothing and as a trading commodity after Europeans settled in the area.

The bobcat will have numerous places of shelter, usually a main den, and several auxiliary shelters on the outer extent of its range, such as hollow logs, brush piles, thickets, or under rock ledges. The bobcat is able to survive for long periods without food, but will eat heavily when prey is abundant. During lean periods, it will often prey on larger animals it can kill and return to feed on later. It is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which means it is not considered threatened with extinction, but hunting and trapping must be closely monitored.

General issues across the Sub Region will be addressed below, followed by management plans specific to local populations.

The bobcat species is the most adaptable predator species and brings a lot to the health of the ecosystem. There has been hypothesis that their population has increased over the years although it still has yet to be proven. There is still a need for a large scale assessment of the population in the region to have a better understanding how and why the population increased and to assess the habitat and prey area. The bobcat species can be very useful to species management plans as it can be used to control ungulates population and other animal that are their primary prey. The population should be assessed from several different methods. Each method has its limitation such as surveys that can give a real estimate number and does not include as much details as maybe other methods would. Therefore, by using a wide range of method, the results will be clear and efficient to help scientists and consultants to fill in the gap knowledges about bobcats and develop new policies and law. This will include the bobcats usefulness to manage a certain prey population and keep the bobcats populations a sustainable level before it increases too much and can get out of control. The factors that could be affecting the bobcat population increase are changes in agricultural and land-use practises, range expansion and habitat improvement programs, wildlife management programs improvement over the years and the increase of prey density. For this reason, bobcat population surveys should be standardized across jurisdictions including local and national level, or a specific monitoring program could be implemented. 

Source: http://www.fwspubs.org/doi/pdf/10.3996/122009-JFWM-026

Issues:

• Unknown population size of bobcat in the Sub Region

Goals:

• Initiate studies to determine the extent of bobcat populations in the Sub Region
• Determine necessary conservation measures to maintain healthy population sizes of bobcat