Bobcats Widespread in United States

(Page 3 of 3)

July/August 2009
Marc Murrell 
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Although bobcats are extremely secretive, shy and retiring, they do make noise, particularly during the breeding season. And if you’ve ever heard these sounds, you likely won’t soon forget them. The shrill shrieks are much like a person screaming, or an extremely hungry infant voicing its displeasure at the lack of food. Other vocalizations imitate typical sounds heard from a house cat on the prowl, except on a much louder and more intense scale. Squalling, howling, meowing and yowls are all part of their communication repertoire. If cornered or threatened, they will growl, hiss and spit.

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Predator face-off

Bobcats have few natural predators. On occasion, young bobcats are killed by foxes, coyotes, wild dogs and great-horned owls. Their biggest predator is man. Many states have a regulated hunting and trapping season on these furbearers, a unique, renewable natural resource. In the mid-1990s, trappers annually harvested roughly 25,000 bobcats nationwide resulting in about $2.5 million in fur sales. Since that time, bobcat pelt prices have remained fairly steady, although at a lower level due to fluctuating fur market demand. On average, bobcat pelts from the West are more valuable than those in the Midwest and East.

The majority of individuals will never have the good fortune to see a bobcat in its natural setting despite healthy populations in many Great Plains states. The increase in populations in these states may be attributed to a number of factors. A combination of increased habitat and resulting prey species with the advent of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) may be at least partially responsible. Mild winters frequenting many states over the last decade may also play a role in the increased survival rates of young bobcats.

Bobcats are important predators, and they truly are a rich addition to the fauna of the outdoor world. They are extremely elusive and even veteran outdoorsmen only catch an occasional glimpse, as bobcats typically bolt at the first sight, smell or sound of man, dogs or other danger. But despite their secretiveness, it’s nice to know that these elusive cats still roam the wilds of our country.

Marc Murrell is an award-winning outdoor writer and photographer from Newton, Kansas. Some of his most memorable stories and photographs include outdoor experiences shared while hunting, trapping, fishing and camping with his wife and three children.

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  • Bhaskardancer 7/6/2009 10:57:46 PM

    Not so nice to know if you have domestic cats or a small flock of free-ranged Chickens in the woods of North-eastern Oklahoma. That is surely a good description of the Bobcat's cry, though. That was the last thing we heard before our big white cat went missing.

  • Jane 7/6/2009 2:39:06 PM

    "Elusive" and "secretive" are flat-out myths, as I learned last year when two adult bobcats, female followed by male, strolled across my newly acquired rural property in broad daylight not 50 feet from where I was sitting on my back steps. About 20 minutes later, a smaller, immature individual appeared out of the cornfields across the road from my house, sat down and looked at me for a while and ducked back under cover.

    Knowing that bobcats were "elusive" and "secretive" and "rarely seen," i was very excited. I told everyone I knew in the area. They all smiled, yawned a bit and patted me on the head. They knew all about the bobcats whose territory I live in. They see them all the time. They know the big, robust male is a recent arrival, having taken over the den and territory and access to females a long-time, aging and presumably now dead resident male used to hold.

    One of my neighbors, not a fantasist and knowledgeable about wildlife, has had this big male wander up his driveway on more than one occasion and settle down under his truck to wait for an unwary housecat or rabbit. In broad daylight, nowhere near dusk or dawn.

    Another friend regularly, like once or twice a week, sees one of the bobcats crossing at around the same time the country road he he drives down early every morning to go to work.

    It may well be that naturalists don't see them often, but those of us who live in the middle of their territory sure do.

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