Yall's opinion

[Arkyyoter]

Guys.....seems as if we are seeing more and more bobcats around in the eastern states...at least the south eastern states.....When I was a kid, 30-40 years ago, I spent a LOT of time in the woods.....we rarely saw a cat.....now I see and call a few each year......

Now for the question/opinion......ya'll think this is because of a severe decrease in trapping??? I know we don't have near as many trappers as we used to, and many of those we do have are trapping beaver as there is a $10.00 bounty on them in our area....I wonder if this may not be playing a large part in the numbers of bobcats......

What do ya'll think??


Joe

[sleddogg]

Arky - Land trapping and running 'yotes and cats with hounds is illegal in Ma. since 1996. I have not seen an increase in coyotes because of this, but the bobcat population continues to grow here every year. Treeing a bobcat and shooting it was relatively easy for Houndsmen, so I suspect its help the Bobcat numbers to increase dramatically.

[Bob D]

I think you are right and I sure am glad. I hope it stays this way( large number of cats)

[coyotehunter_1]

Yep, less trapping plus learning to live closer to man. I know of at least three bobcats that live in a retirement community (no hunting zones). They have an easy life... pool, golf courses, restaurant, ect… all the amenities.   
Raccoon and fox are also on the rise here.

[Jeb]

Joe this is spooky, me and a friend were discussing this today !!  I do believe the lack of trapping has had to have some effect on bobcat populations but in turn we dont see fox anymore or their tracks/scat for that matter. The lack of fox could be the increasing numbers in coyote ? Another thing we noticed, about 10 years ago we couldnt help but notice chipmonks were everywhere. We were seeing them everywhere we hunted and even on our farms. If I'm not mistaken a chipmonk is predator food, right ?  One thing is for sure we have bobcats out the @ss here in NW Ga. and I plan on targeting cats on every stand when we get started 1st of January.  Good thread Joe.
                      Jim

Guys.....seems as if we are seeing more and more bobcats around in the eastern states...at least the south eastern states.....When I was a kid, 30-40 years ago, I spent a LOT of time in the woods.....we rarely saw a cat.....now I see and call a few each year......

Now for the question/opinion......ya'll think this is because of a severe decrease in trapping??? I know we don't have near as many trappers as we used to, and many of those we do have are trapping beaver as there is a $10.00 bounty on them in our area....I wonder if this may not be playing a large part in the numbers of bobcats......

What do ya'll think??


Joe

[Hawks Feather]

If any of you get too many cats you can send them to northwest Ohio.  I would love to take a shot at one.  But first Ohio would have to get a LOT of them and then it would have to become legal.  Don't think that will happen while I am still able to hold a rifle.

Jerry

[RShaw]

A female bobcat only has 2 or 3 kittens per year and the females are pretty sorry mothers to boot. It takes a while for the population to grow. Especailly with the toms trying to kill the kittens in order for the female to come back into heat. Bobcats are fairly secretive and it takes a good population before you really start to see them in numbers. Based upon the number of tracks i see in the snow, the population in my area is growing every year.

The red fox population is very low, but starting to build again. Muskrats are almost all gone. The coyotes are in short supply and what ones we have are mangy. I'm a trapper and I believe trapping had nothing to do with the low populations of these animals. Mother nature deals with it in three ways. Predation. Disease. Starvation. You can't stockpile wildlife.

Randy

[Jeb]

Randy , my only thoughts on trapping was the lack of around here. Thinking maybe thats why we have so many cats . Last Sunday am there was 3 cat sightings on our deer lease and one of those there was two together.
                    Jim

A female bobcat only has 2 or 3 kittens per year and the females are pretty sorry mothers to boot. It takes a while for the population to grow. Especailly with the toms trying to kill the kittens in order for the female to come back into heat. Bobcats are fairly secretive and it takes a good population before you really start to see them in numbers. Based upon the number of tracks i see in the snow, the population in my area is growing every year.

The red fox population is very low, but starting to build again. Muskrats are almost all gone. The coyotes are in short supply and what ones we have are mangy. I'm a trapper and I believe trapping had nothing to do with the low populations of these animals. Mother nature deals with it in three ways. Predation. Disease. Starvation. You can't stockpile wildlife.

Randy

[lankrod]

From what I've been told, until the last 10-15 years we didn't have much of any bobcats in Southern Illinois. The university did some studies - trapping and radio collaring, etc, about 10 years ago.  Bobcats are protected in Illinois, and the population has exploded.

We called in three in the last week, and just get to sit and watch them.  We see NEARLY as many cats as coyotes.  (Of course we call quite a few coyotes we never see). I sure wish they would open a season on them.

So, to answer your question, I think it would be safe to assume that no hunting/trapping pressure in our area has partly contributed to the population explosion.